The Distance Delta Module 1

Unit One Exam Practice Task

Look at the following sentences which appear in the text below (a human interest story
taken from a newspaper). All the sentences contain examples of the present perfect
simple.

1 In that time, the self-styled Running Man has made it across the Himalayas. (line 21)

2 Until now the record for the longest distance ever run has been held by an American.
(line 42)

3 During the last 65 months he has run anything from 25 to 125 miles in a day. (line 61)

4 So this is the first time I’ve ever achieved something.’ (line 68)

(i) Comment on the form and meaning/use of the present perfect in these sentences.

(ii) What problems of form and pronunciation might learners have with the underlined
present perfect structures in these sentences?

Unit 1 Guideline Answers 1

The Distance Delta Module 1

Guideline Answer

(i) Comment on the form and meaning/use of the present perfect in these sentences.

1 In that time, the self-styled running man has made it across the Himalayas. (line
21)

Form

 Third person singular

 Auxiliary verb ‘have’ in present tense

 Past participle/3rd form of the lexical/main verb ‘make’

 ‘Make’ is an irregular verb

Meaning/Use

• The present perfect simple is used here to describe a single completed action which
occurred at some time / an unspecified time in the past during the time frame ‘in that time’.

• We don’t know when in the time frame it occurred but sometime in the period from October
1997 to the present.

• The focus is not on when he made it but the fact that it is now completed.

2 Until now, the record for the longest distance ever run has been held by an
American. (line 42)

Form

 Third person singular

 Auxiliary verb ‘have’ in present tense

 Past participle/3rd form of verb ‘be’

 ‘Be’ is auxiliary verb here as this is the passive voice (present perfect
passive)

 Past participle/3rd form of lexical/main verb ‘hold’

 ‘Hold’ is an irregular verb

Meaning/Use

• The present perfect simple is used here to describe a state which started at an unknown
point in the past (we are not told when the period started) and has continued up to the
present / the time of writing the article/ now.

Unit 1 Guideline Answers 2

The Distance Delta Module 1

• The verb phrase is also in the passive voice. The present perfect is used in the passive
here because the writer is reporting a fact and it is unimportant who holds the record.

 It is not used in the continuous aspect because ‘held’ is used here to describe the state of
possession rather than the action of holding.

NB: ‘Ever’ is not related to the verb phrase has been held under discussion.

Interesting to note but not relevant to answer here: The full version of the noun phrase ‘the record
for the longest distance ever run’ would be ‘which has ever been run’. This contains a reduced relative
clause and also has an ellipted present perfect structure in it (‘has ever been run’). It is an unusual
use of the present perfect to create a sense of immediacy as the record was smashed before and the
grammar used could have been ‘Until then, the record was / had been held by an American….’

3 During the last 65 months he has run anything from 25 to 125 miles in a day.
(line 61)

Form

 Third person singular

 Auxiliary verb ‘have’ in present tense

 Past participle/third form of lexical/main verb ‘run’

 Irregular verb ‘run’

Meaning/Use

• The present perfect describes here a repeated action / a habit which occurred more than
once during the time frame ‘in the last 65 months’ which leads up to the present.

• The implication is that it is still continuing or that it will probably continue. The present
perfect continuous is not used even though it is a repeated action. The present perfect
simple is used instead to emphasise that the running was done every day (‘in a day’).

4 ‘So this is the first time I’ve ever achieved something.’ (line 68)

Form

 Third person singular

 Auxiliary verb ‘have’ in present tense

 Adverb ‘ever’

 Past participle/third form of lexical/main verb ‘achieve’.

 ‘Achieve’ is a regular verb - as it ends with ‘e’, the ending is ‘-d’.

 The auxiliary verb ‘have’ is contracted to ‘ve’.

Unit 1 Guideline Answers 3

The Distance Delta Module 1

 The adverb ‘ever’ comes between the auxiliary verb and lexical/main verb.

Meaning/Use

• The present perfect is used here to describe the action / experience of achieving which has
just been completed and is relevant now. The time frame is ‘ever’ or ‘in my whole life’.

• The explicit use of ever is not necessary to convey any particular meaning – it has more of
an emphatic function here. This can be considered a ‘special’ use of the present perfect in
conjunction with This is the first time … (in my life) to describe achievements.

(ii) What problems of form and pronunciation might learners have with the underlined
present perfect structures in these sentences?

Here you could deal with each sentence individually or make points under the headings of
form and pronunciation, taking examples from each of the sentences.

Form

• Irregular past participles cause difficulties as they do not resemble the infinitive form of the
verb and there are numerous patterns.

 The closeness of the past participle to the infinitive form can cause learners to confuse
them, e.g. make vs made, hold vs held. ‘Run’ is particularly problematic as it has the same
form in the present simple and past participle.

• Subject - verb agreement: students forget to use the correct form of the auxiliaries
have/has.

• Position of ever: Students might forget to place it between the auxiliary and past participle.

• Ever / never: students might wish to use never in the affirmative rather than ever (L1
transfer).

• Omission of the passive: students might omit the auxiliary been and produce *has held
instead of has been held. Students might also think that this is part of the present perfect
continuous and so produce *has been holding. They may not recognise this as a passive
form.

• Omission of the auxiliary: if students forget the auxiliary, this will result in a grammatical
error (*he run) or the use of the simple past tense instead of the present perfect.

• Is or has? Students may not know if the contracted form ‘s stands for is or has and they
therefore produce the wrong auxiliary in the full form of a sentence, or misunderstand the
form and not identify this as present perfect.

Unit 1 Guideline Answers 4

The Distance Delta Module 1

Pronunciation

• Weak form of the auxiliary verb: the weak form of the auxiliary verb is often difficult to hear,
resulting in students thinking they have heard the past tense, e.g. Running Man /meɪd/
instead of /həzmeɪd/ or /əzmeɪd/ . This in turn can encourage them to produce incorrect
forms and may prevent them from recognising the difference in meaning compared with the
past tense.

• Weak form of been: been is usually used in its weak form /bɪn/, which causes receptive and
productive difficulties.

• Elision of /h/: the initial /h/ sound in the auxiliaries has and have can be elided rather than
contracted when used with a weak form, e.g. /i:(j)əz/.

• Sentence stress: learners may stress the auxiliary rather than the past participle and
therefore sound over-insistent or unnatural in their production.

• Past participle endings: students may not know when to pronounce the regular –ed past
participle ending as /t/, /d/ or /ɪd/ and so produce * /əʧi:ved/as opposed to /əʧi:vd/

• Contractions: students may prefer to pronounce the full form of the subject pronoun and
auxiliary verb instead of contracting them. This makes the learners sound unnatural, at least
to native speakers.

• Elision: students may not elide the final consonant /t/ or /d/ sound at the end of the past
participle when followed by another consonant sound, i.e. held by; achieved something. This
can slow their speech slightly.

• Consonant / vowel linking: conversely, students may not link the final consonant /t/ or /d/
sound at the end of the past participle when it is followed by a vowel sound, i.e. (i) made it
/ˈmeɪdɪt/ or link the final /z/ or /v/ of the auxiliary with the /e/ in ever /əvevə/ i.e.(iv) I’ve
ever achieved /aɪvevərətʃiːvd/. Again, this will have the effect of making their speech
sound a little disjointed.

• /rʌn/ versus /ræn/: students can find it difficult to hear and produce the difference between
the two monophthongs and so get the simple present, simple past and present perfect forms
confused.

Unit 1 Guideline Answers 5