Class 02 – Time Tenses (Continuation)

Past Perfect

Format: had + past participle

Just as the present perfect refers to a time-frame in the past that has
relevance to the present, the past perfect refers to a time-frame leading
up to a point in the past.

In other words, the present perfect refers to ‘time up to now’, while the
past perfect refers to a ‘time up to then’.

We will call this the “then relevance”.

----------- Event ------------→

Past --------------------------------→ Then

The “then relevance” is always indicated either through adjuncts or

through context!

Example:

That was in 1938. I left in June with the children for a new home in Oxford,
where my mother had bought a house. My father had died in 1936.
↓
This can be illustrated as:

Time before ‘then’:

… my mother had bought a house
… father had died

‘then’ (= 1938):
I left in June

Other examples:

By 1930, the economic depression had caused severe unemployment in

many countries. (then = 1930)
She finally passed her exam that year. She had studied very hard. (then=
“that year”)

There were many car accidents that morning. It had rained all night. (then
= “that morning”)

Uses of the past perfect:

The past perfect is very frequent in reported clauses where the reporting
verb is in the past:

Linda kept me informed and she said that her husband had moved back
in.

The policed informed me that criminals had robbed stores in the area
before.

Obs. Reporting verbs include verbs of perception:

I noticed he had hurt his leg.

He saw that she had healed.

The past perfect is also often used to refer to situations which were true
but which have been or are to be changed. In such cases, had is often
stressed:

I had planned to stay in the library and study until 9:30, but I was too
tired.

We had hoped to see them at the party, but they didn’t come.

The past perfect MUST be used when there is a past reference in a

hypothetical conditional clause If:

She was so old she would have died if she had caught swine flu.
Well, even if you had come home tonight, you would have been upset
anyway.

Obs. The past perfect is not used in the main clause in hypothetical
conditional sentence:

If I had had more time, I would have been in touch earlier.

(If I had had more time, I had been in touch earlier.)

Past Perfect X Past Simple

Sometimes the past perfect may be necessary to undo possible

misunderstandings or ambiguities with regards to the sequence of events
and the semantic relationship between them:

They all left the room when she recited her poem. → Suggests they all left
at the moment she started reciting.

They all left the room when she had recited her poem. → Suggests they
left after she had finished reciting.

The past simple also suggests a more immediate causal link between two
events, compared to the past perfect:

When he opened his third present, he looked at the roller skates and
smiled. → Stresses the immediate result, suggesting that the rollers skates
were his third present.

When he had opened his third present, he looked at the roller skates and
smiled. → Not such an immediate relationship; the roller skates may not
have been the third present.

What is the difference?

He had written many essays that month. He was tired. → He wrote many
essays (he’s done), and because of it, he was tired. (“then relevance”)

He had been writing many essays that month. He was tired. → He wrote
and he was still writing many essays that month, and because of it, he was
tired.
 Past Perfect Progressive

Format: had been + ing form

The principles for choosing between the past perfect and the past perfect
progressive are the same as those operating between the present perfect
and the present perfect continuous.

The past perfect progressive is used for events which had started in the
past and were still continuing at the moment “then”.

-----------Event -------- Continuing→

Past --------------------------------→ Then

Again, context and/or adjuncts are going to be used to indicate the “event
in the past still continuing then” aspect!

We had been playing football for five minutes when you showed up. →
Ongoing event continuing up to that point in the past “when you showed
up”.

I had been working so intensely I could not believe when everything was
finished. → Ongoing event continuing up to that point in the past “when
everything was finished”.

I felt so sick that morning. I had been sneezing and blowing my nose all
night. → Ongoing event continuing up to “that morning”.

Past Perfect X Past Perfect Progressive

Often, the difference between the past perfect and the past perfect
progressive is the emphasis on the extended aspect of the event in the
past (past perfect progressive) or the emphasis on that event being
completed on a ‘time up to then’ time-frame (past perfect):
After their departure Edith noticed the small white card lying on the table.
She had been meaning to tell her brother about it, he had the right to
know, but their behavior had put everything else out of her mind.
↓
“had been meaning…” refers to an extended event going on around that
time-frame; “had put” refers to a single, completed event that occurred
during that time.

Past Tense Round Up

The past tense forms refer to a time-frame that is in some way separated
from the present; there is a clear break between the completion of the
event and the present moment. This break may be explicitly stated by an
expression of definite past time (ex: yesterday, last week, in 1975) or may
be implicit through context.

The past tense forms may be contrasted with the present perfect forms,
which are used to refer to events in a time-frame that is still connected to
the present moment (“now relevance”).

The basic difference between the speaker’s perception of the time as past
or as extending until now, and the choice of the past tense or the present
perfect forms can be expressed as:

Past tense forms:

----Time---→ Now
Event

I mailed your letter.

We were working in the garden all day yesterday.

Present perfect forms:

----Time---→ Now
Event --→ Now

I have called you many times today!

She has been feeling sick for the last few days.

Past perfect forms:

A speaker may also refer to a time-frame in the past and to events from
an earlier past that are linked in some way to that time-frame. In these
cases, the past perfect forms may be used. This relationship may be
represented as:

----Time---→ Then
Event --→ Then

I had told Michael already, so the news came as no surprise to him.

He had been dating her for a while, but he still had not met her parents.

Translate the following into English.

Liderança é objetivamente um excedente de poder que extravasa de
forma organizada, sistemática – mesmo que a percepção não indique
claramente essa forma. Poder que será real – como o poder econômico,
militar e tecnológico dos EUA ou da China – ou psicológico – como o
carisma, a habilidade ou o prestígio de um líder político, celebridade ou
instituição. De qualquer forma, o líder precisa ter recursos suficientes –
próprios ou daquilo que representa, um grupo, um país, uma entidade,
uma instituição – que lhe permitam tomar as iniciativas e enfrentar os
custos, ônus ou resistências próprios de todo processo em que ocorre
liderança ou disputa por ela. A liderança absorve energias mentais e
materiais, implica capacidade de iniciativa, gera compromissos e não
existe no vazio, mas sim como uma relação de poder.
Leadership is objectively a surplus of power / power surplus that overflows
/ spreads in an organized or systematic manner – even though / although
perception does not clearly indicate how this happens. This power will be
real – as the economic, military and technological power of the US or
China – or psychological - such as charisma, skill or the prestige of a
political leader, celebrity or institution.
Não falo apenas de poder externo para associar e conduzir parceiros em
um projeto, mas também de poder interno, para que a decisão de liderar
o que quer que seja constitua uma política de Estado o mais consensual
possível, e não um instrumento de prestígio de quem exerce o poder.
Algumas ideias sobre a liderança brasileira – Sérgio Danese

TPS
Read the text and answer the following questions.
(TPS 2015)

He — for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did
something to disguise it — was in the act of slicing at the head of an enemy
which swung from the rafters. It was the colour of an old football, and more or
less the shape of one, save for the sunken cheeks and a strand or two of coarse,
dry hair, like the hair on a coconut. Orlando’s father, or perhaps his grandfather,
had struck it from the shoulders of a vast Pagan who had started up under the
moon in the barbarian fields of Africa; and now it swung, gently, perpetually, in
the breeze which never ceased blowing through the attic rooms of the gigantic
house of the lord who had slain him.

Orlando’s fathers had ridden in fields of asphodel, and stony fields, and fields
watered by strange rivers, and they had struck many heads of many colours off
many shoulders, and brought them back to hang from the rafters. So too would
Orlando, he vowed. But since he was sixteen only, and too young to ride with
them in Africa or France, he would steal away from his mother and the peacocks
in the garden and go to his attic room and there lunge and plunge and slice the
air with his blade. (…) His fathers had been noble since they had been at all.
They came out of the northern mists wearing coronets on their heads. Were not
the bars of darkness in the room, and the yellow pools which chequered the
floor, made by the sun falling through the stained glass of a vast coat of arms in
the window? Orlando stood now in the midst of the yellow body of a heraldic
leopard. When he put his hand on the window-sill to push the window open, it
was instantly coloured red, blue, and yellow like a butterfly’s wing. Thus, those
who like symbols, and have a turn for the deciphering of them, might observe
that though the shapely legs, the handsome body, and the well-set shoulders
were all of them decorated with various tints of heraldic light, Orlando’s face, as
he threw the window open, was lit solely by the sun itself. A more candid, sullen
face would be impossible to find. Happy the mother who bears, happier still the
biographer who records the life of such a one! Never need she vex herself, nor
he invokes the help of novelist or poet. From deed to deed, from glory to glory,
from office to office he must go, his scribe following after, till they reach
whatever seat it may be that is the height of their desire. Orlando, to look at,
was cut out precisely for some such career. The red of the cheeks was covered
with peach down; the down on the lips was only a little thicker than the down
on the cheeks. The lips themselves were short and slightly drawn back over
teeth of an exquisite and almond whiteness. Nothing disturbed the arrowy nose
in its short, tense flight; the hair was dark, the ears small, and fitted closely to
the head. But, alas, that these catalogues of youthful beauty cannot end
without mentioning forehead and eyes. Alas, that people are seldom born
devoid of all three; for directly we glance at Orlando standing by the window,
we must admit that he had eyes like drenched violets, so large that the water
seemed to have brimmed in them and widened them; and a brow like the
swelling of a marble dome pressed between the two blank medallions which
were his temples. Directly we glance at eyes and forehead, thus do we
rhapsodize. Directly we glance at eyes and forehead, we have to admit a
thousand disagreeables which it is the aim of every good biographer to ignore.

Orlando – A biography, 1928 (adapted) – Virginia Wolf

QUESTÃO 39 According to the text, decide whether the following statements

are right (C) or wrong (E).
1 - Lunging, plunging and slicing the air with a blade were activities with which
Orlando engaged as some sort of rehearsal for the roles he believed he would
eventually play. C
2 - Orlando acquired, from an early age on, a disconcerting habit of cross-
dressing. E
3 - One could find some live animals up in the attic of Orlando’s house. E
4 - Orlando cut a striking figure. C
QUESTÃO 40 In relation to Orlando’s family, decide whether the following
statements are right (C) or wrong (E).
1 - Orlando’s family have enjoyed their title from time immemorial. C
2 - Orlando’s mother was a victim of his, because he would make off with her
money while she was busy in the garden. E
3 - Orlando’s father or his grandfather traversed vast expanses of land
beheading people of different races along the way. C
4 - His mother, when pregnant, foresaw a life of success for Orlando, a life
which would make her happy. E
QUESTÃO 41 As far as Orlando’s physical features are concerned, decide
whether the following statements are right (C) or wrong (E).
1 - His eyes and brow were his most striking facial features. C
2 - Orlando’s lips and cheeks had a sweet fragrance reminiscent of fresh fruit. E
3 - There was some fine, silky, soft hair both on his lips and cheeks. C
4 - His teeth were not perfectly aligned and had the colour of nuts. E
QUESTÃO 42 In reference to the content of the text, its vocabulary and syntactic
structure, decide whether the following statements are right (C) or wrong (E).
1 - The use of the words “dome” (R.54) and “temples” (R.55) has the effect of
creating a faint aura of saintliness and religiousness about Orlando. E
2 - By being informed that Orlando had a “sullen face” (R. 34 and 35), the reader
learns that Orlando was a serious and grave young man. C
3 - In lines 4, 7 and 9, although with different syntactic functions, the word it
refers to the same thing: “the head of an enemy which swung from the rafters”
(R. 3 and 4). C
4 - The repetition of single words and of phrases results in a tiresome text, one
in which the author tries to tell a story but is stuck in descriptive language. E

Mock exam
Read the text and answer the following questions
Henry Ford, the founder of the carmaker that still bears his name,
declared in 1916 that “History is more or less bunk.” When asked to open
a museum more than a decade later, he sought to clarify his comments. It
is not politicians and generals who change the future, he said, but the lives
of ordinary people such as farmers or engineers. Two new papers,
presented at Britain’s Economic History Society's annual conference last
month, suggest that the legacy of individuals’ personal struggles in
America is more enduring than even Ford could have imagined.

The first, by Cornelius Christian of Oxford University, looks at the

consequences of the lynching of black Americans between 1882 and 1930.
Mr Christian found that this history of racial violence still echoes down the
decades. He also found that the higher an area’s lynching rate before
1930, the wider the income gap between blacks and whites remained in
2008-12, even when adjusted for factors such as the education and
employment levels of a local area. A high rate of lynching widens this gap
by as much as 15% in some cases.

Another paper presented at the conference, by Vellore Arthi, also of

Oxford University, looked at the long-run impact of the Dust Bowl—a long
period of drought in America’s central plains in the 1930s that involved a
series of severe dust storms. Using census data Ms Arthi found that those
who were born or were children during the disaster had a lower fertility
rate than their peers from elsewhere in the country, were less likely to
attend college and were more likely to suffer disability and poverty when
they became older. As other research has shown, some of these
disadvantages, in turn, are likely to have affected the life chances of their
children. In short, crimes that occurred a century ago and a drought that
ended 75 years ago are still blighting lives today.
Economic history: the past’s long shadow – the Economist

1 – Choose right or wrong for each item below.

1 – According to the text, individuals are more important in shaping the

future than generals and politicians.

2 – The social context into which individuals are born matters less than
their own actions throughout their lives.

3 – Researchers use quantitative methods to analyze the past, and they

combine this information to the social aspects of a given region, producing
fully-fledged studies of economic history.

4 – Both the advantages and disadvantages individuals face during their

lives are, in certain ways, transmitted to their offspring.

2- Choose right or wrong for each item below.

1 – Henry Ford believed that generals and politicians have no impact on

history.

2 – Even though the topics of the studies all involved the United States,
American academics are not studying their own country’s economic
history.

3 – Past challenges faced by a person’s forebears may impact his or her

physical health.

4 – Henry Ford’s 1916 statement was polemical.

3 – Choose right or wrong for each item below.

1 – It is possible to infer that slavery still has an overbearing effect on
many societies.
2 – Jim-Crow-era American states are still home to racially-biased
societies.
3 – The sentence “Mr Christian found that this history of racial violence
still echoes down the decades” (2nd paragraph) can be re-written as “Mr
Christian found that this history of racial violence still ebbs down the
decades”.
4 – The sentence “In short, crimes that occurred a century ago and
a drought that ended 75 years ago are still blighting lives today” (last
paragraph) can be re-written as “In other words, crimes that took place a
century ago and a drought that ended 75 years ago are still plaguing lives
today”.