English Practice exercises - narrative tenses (3) for proficiency: P6-05G

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Advanced/proficiency English practice exercises narrative tenses – past simple, past perfect. (Note - this exercise has been moved from P6-04G, which now has a different one)

In the following narrative, you must evaluate the verbs in bold type, which are all in the past simple.

The ones in time 2, which help to develop the main line of the story, must stay in the past simple, except for three, which need to be in the past continuous. (See E6-06G if you are not sure about this tense.)

The verbs in time 3 – those which take us back before the time of the action as it develops, must be in the past perfect.

BUT, remember also that, in the extended flashback, the main tense used will be the past simple. The exceptions will be 1) two or three verbs at the beginning, to establish the new time frame - T3 -  and any actions within the flashback which occur at a time prior to the developing line of the T3 flashback story.

Complication (sorry, but this is real story-telling!) There are four verbs which need to be in the past perfect as an equivalent to the present perfect in T2 – in other words, they concern action which continues up to the ‘present’ of the story, not action which belongs back in T3.  (see E6-06G). I mention them because you will ‘feel’ that they are different, and may be uncertain what to do with them.

 

 

            It was a cold, wet January afternoon, about three o’clock. I was indoors since half past eight that morning, when I went out to buy a pint of milk for my breakfast. So I decided to go out for a walk. Then the phone rang. It was Carlos. I didn’t see or hear from him for over two years – since the autumn of ’99, to be exact.

            The way we met on that occasion was bizarre. I travelled on a ferry in the Greek islands. As we approached Naxos, we noticed a sailboat capsized in the harbour. Sitting on the upturned hull, waving a faded red T-shirt, was a man with a large black beard and shoulder-length curly black hair – yes, as you have guessed, it was Carlos.

            We spent a night drinking retsina in the bars of Naxos. I woke up to find that I lay on a bench at the quayside. Carlos vanished. I didn’t see him since then.

            ‘Carlos’, I shouted, ‘I don’t believe it! How are you? Where are you?’

            ‘I’m in Tahiti,’ he answered, ‘and tomorrow I’m celebrating my fiftieth birthday. Get to the Air France check-in desk at Heathrow as quick as you can and pick up your ticket. Oh, and don’t forget to bring a bottle. See you, compadre!’ Then the line went dead.

I glanced out of the window. It rained. I grinned and went to look for my passport. It was only then that I allowed myself to realise how much I missed him during those two years.