Complete the story with the Past Simple or the Past Perfect of the verbs between brackets:

Harriet Quimby was born in 1875 and was raised on a farm in Arcadia, Michigan, in the USA.
Nobody ___________ 1(think) she would be so brave and adventurous when she was a schoolgirl.
However, people who _____________ 2(know) her well, could notice that she
______________ (become) very ambitious from the moment she _______________ (watch)
3 4

John Moisants flight at the Belmont Park sports event in October, 1910. It is said that she
___________________ 5(get) her driving licence as first female driver in New York, before she
______________ 6(start) to dream of becoming a pilot .

John Moisant's experimental all aluminium plane

She realised she _________________ 7(learn) very little to be able to fulfil her dream of flying.
She _______________8 (want) to be the first woman to get a pilot licence in the USA.
Raymonde de Laroche from France ______________ (be) the first woman to get a pilot
9

licence in the world the year before.

By the time Harriet ________________ 10(get) her licence, she_______________ 11(write) seven
screenplays for pioneer filmmaker D.W. Griffith. Besides, she __________________ (be) a
12

photographer, a reporter and a theatre critic for a famous womens magazine.

 Her work as a journalist and a theatre
critic_______________13(bring) her into contact with many interesting
people. One of them was a flying instructor. By the time she
_____________ 14(meet) him, she______ __________15 (already
decide) that he would teach her how to fly an aeroplane.

Soon after she ______________ 16

(start) her training, she ____
________ (set) her first record flying. She _________ 18(earn) a pilot
17

licence in 1911 and shortly after that she _________ 19(become) the
first woman to make a night flight. At the same time, she__________
20
(begin) to write articles about her experience for many American
magazines.

Harriet ______________________21 (never use) a compass when she ________ 22

(make)
the twenty two mile crossing across the English Channel. Although the weather
____________________23(be) perfect on Sunday, it _________24 (change) the next
morning. Even so, she ______________ 25
(choose) to take off
and cross the channel. However, she _________________________ 26
(never fly) under
pouring rain. That is why she _______________________ (get) lost. Harriet 27

__________________ 28
(land) in France but she _______________29(not know) which
country she _____ 30(
be) in.

The day before Harriet _______ 31(land) in France, the Titanic __________
_________________32 (sink). So, she _______________33(not be) on the front
page news the next morning.

Unfortunately, she __________ 34

(die) very young. If Harriet _________
____________ (not try) to break the speed record of 58 miles per hour
35

over water, she would not have died at the age of 37.

If she _______________36(see) the thousands of women in command of

airplanes, military combat airplanes, space vehicles and executive aviation
positions nowadays, she would have been happy.
KEY - * contracted forms should be accepted especially if students dramatise

the text.

1. thought
2. knew
3. became
4. had watched
5. had got
6. started
7. had learned/learnt
8. wanted
9. had been
10. got
11. had written
12. had been
13. brought
14. met
15. had already decided
16. had started
17. set
18. earned
19. became
20. began
21. had never used
22. made
23. had been
24. changed
25. chose
26. had never flown
27. got
28. landed
29. did not know
30. was
31. landed
32. had sunk
33. was not
34. died
35. had not tried (hadnt tried)
36. had seen
Sources (H. Quimbys biography and pictures):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Quimby

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/quimby.htm

Face2Face Intermediate 4B, p.146,C.U.P, 2008.