The Communicative Grammar of English Workbook - Edward Woods, Rudy Coppieters 2002

7.5. Duration
Unit seven. Adverbs, adverbials and prepositions

Sections 161-165; 457

Duration is normally expressed by adverbials occurring in end-position, though short adverbials can also occur in mid-position.

The commonest time duration adverbials are prepositional phrases, especially those introduced by the preposition for: stay for the summer/for two years (but: all day). Other common prepositions are over, until/till, up to and from ... to/until.

Adverbial clauses of duration can be introduced by the conjunctions while, since and until/till.

Task one **

Complete the following sentences, using one of the time duration adverbials listed below:

1. In Australia time stood still ..., then the country suddenly became part of the modern world.

2. The promise of more food aid ... raised hopes among the starving population.

3. Fortunately, the world has been spared a major nuclear conflict ... .

4. The cold spell that began in December 1962 lasted ... .

5. The failure of living in flats has been generally recognized ... .

6. Lisa let Simon hold her hand ... .

7. I’ve abstained from smoking ... .

8. The present income disparities cannot go on ... .

9. Queen Victoria reigned ... .

10. Two lanes are ... closed for resurfacing purposes.

Task two **

Replace the underlined part in each of the following sentences by an adverbial of duration expressing (roughly) the same meaning. Sentences 9 and 10 should be slightly changed in other ways as well.

Example: I stayed in Scotland from Monday morning to Sunday evening.

→ I stayed in Scotland for a week.

1. The First World War lasted from 1914 to 1918.

2. Humans may not be able to live on another planet before the beginning of the next century.

3. It was quite obvious that we couldn’t wait eternally.

4. I haven’t been feeling too well in the past few weeks.

5. We stayed on the Bahamas until the day before Easter.

6. Fighting in the area has been going on all day long.

7. We’ve been receiving nuisance calls since a short time ago.

8. The Olympic team did a lot of training on Saturday and Sunday.

9. The heatwave began on 21 June and ended around 20 September.

10. Several reporters were present and police officers were combing the woods for the missing girl at the same time.