TELL STORIES THE RIGHT WAY.

We all have stories to tell. The day just ending the trip we did, the experiences we have had... But how to have others involved if we aren't able to bring them over the action and the important things? Here you are an overview of this topic. read it and have as much practice as you can.

When we are telling the story in the past we can use a variety of narrative tenses.

We use the past simple to talk about the main events of the story: The audience watchedthe live broadcast in horror.

We use the past continuous to describe other events and actions that were in progress at the time of events: A woman was lying on a surgical table.

We use the past perfect to show that a past action took place before another past action: Frida had finished school and was travelling home when her bus crashed.

Exercises

1. Read the following article, choose the best verb forms to complete the text and the best headline: Artist turns off the tap or Water protest to end.

Artist Mark McGowan __________(1) said/had said that he _____(2) was expecting/had expected his exhibition ‘The running tap’ at the House Gallery in south-east London, to close in the next few days.

The exhibition ____________(3) started/was starting one month ago when Mark _____________(4) opened/was opening a tap in the kitchen area of the gallery and___________________(5) left/had left it running. McGowan _____________(6) intended/had intended to leave the tap running for a year, but after receiving a letter from the Times Water Authority, the gallery owners _________________(7) were thinking/had thought about shutting the exhibition down. The exhibition ___________________(8) was waiting/has wasted over 700 litres of water every hour, and over half a million litres ___________________(9) were already/had already been used.

McGowan _______________________(10) was designing/had designed his artwork to draw attention to the way that people waste water.

The headline I think it is: Artist turns off the tap.

2. Put the verb in brackets into the past simple, past continuous or past perfect. Sometimes more than one tense is possible.

I (1) _______ (walk) home yesterday when I (2) _______ (see) a group of people in front of the church. They (3) ________ (laugh) and one man with a video camera (4) _______ (film) something, so I (5) _______ (go) to have a closer look. Three people (6) _______ (hold) long sticks and they seemed to be attacking a traffic warden!

The man with the video camera (7) _______ (notice) the look of horror on my face. He (8) ______ (come) over to me and (9) ______ (explain) that it was a piece of performance art. The traffic warden was really an artist called Mark McGowan, who (10) ______ (dress) up in a warden’s uniform. He (11) _______ (advertise) the event on a website, inviting people to come along and hit him with wooden sticks.

MORE EXERCISES