5th year Narrative tenses

Narrative tenses

Exercise 1

Choose the correct narrative tenses to complete the sentences below.

1.       I told John not to drive, because he _____ all night.

a. drank

b. was drinking

c. had drunk

d. had been drinking

2. Why did you change the channel? I ______ that movie.

a. watched

b. was watching

c. had watched

d. had been watching

3. When I _____ out of the shower the lights _____.

a. got / were getting off

b. had got / were getting off

c. was getting / went off

d. had been getting / had got off

4. When I saw Clara I realised that she ______ much in all those years.

a. didn't change

b. wasn't changing

c. hadn't changed

d. hadn't been changing

5. When he entered the room somebody _____ him in the head.

a. hit

b. was hitting

c. had hit

d. had been hitting

Exercise 2

Choose the correct option to complete the text below.

Many years ago I 1______________  (decide) to spend New Year's Eve with my family. I 2 ____________ (spend) new year with my parents but I had nowhere to go, and being with my family seemed preferable to being on my own.

When my parents 3 ____________ (open) the door I could see they 4_____________ (smile) , and that they were genuinely happy to see me. I 5  _______________(be) addicted to heroin for 10 years, and for them, seeing me was the confirmation that I wasn't dead in an alley. Unfortunately, I 6 ___________ (have) nothing new or exciting to tell them, just the same sad old stories. I 7 ____________(go)from crappy job to crappy job, being invariably sacked, and I 8 _________________  (restore) to crime whenever I was out of money. Same old, same old.

During dinner, I 9_________________ (drink up) a few glassfuls of whisky. I 10  _______________ (need) something to make ease the pain, because for the whole evening my sisters 11  ________________ (look) at me with such contempt that it was unbearable. My own sisters 12 ______________ (hate) me. Then I had a moment of realisation; I 13 _________________ (discover) that they would never hate me as much as I hated myself.

When we finished dinner I 14 ________________(raise) my glass. "I'm going into rehab," I said. My parents 15  ________________ (look) at me with some kind of hope. Parents never lose hope. But my sisters just 16  ______________________ (look) down with disdain. They 17 _____________________ (Know) perfectly well that I had been in rehab centres many times before, and that this time wouldn't be different.

But this time it was different. After that day, I 18 __________________ (remember) that look in my sisters' eyes every day, every time I 19 _________________  (want) to shoot some heroin.  10 years later, on a New Year's Eve, I thanked my sisters because they 20  _________________ (save) my life. They kissed me with their new look in their eyes, the look of love.