UNIT 1: LANGUAGE PRACTICE

Present continuous or present perfect?

1 A trainer is giving some advice to her students on a communication skills course.
Choose the best form of the verb in brackets. This could be the present continuous
or present perfect. Sometimes both may be possible. Then identify the reason for
your choice from the boxes below. Look at the Language reference for Unit 1 if you
need help. The first one is done as an example.
Present continuous Present perfect
1 An action which is in progress 7 A state that started in the past and
is still continuing
2 An unfinished action
8 A completed action in the past
3 A temporary action which has some relevance in the
4 A trend, changing action or present
situation 9 Finished actions in a period of
5 Repeated actions which are time that is still continuing
happening around now 10 Actions in the past which may
6 Future arrangements happen again

1 Over the last two weeks, your appearance has improved (improve) a great deal. This
is very important if you want to make a good impression. Reason 7
2 Every time you stand up to talk in front of the other students, you
(not make) enough eye contact with them.
3 You mustn’t forget that actions speak louder than words. You
(not develop) your body language skills at all in the last few days. If you don’t work on
this, you are not going to make a good impression.
4 We (make) some really good progress this week. I think you are all
working very hard at this.
5 Today you (show) that you can control your nerves. This is clearly
going to help you when you speak in public.
6 I think you (learn) to use your sense of humour but we still need to work
on this some more.
7 On this course, we (practise) how to speak in public and tomorrow we
will spend the morning looking at strategies to help you do this.
8 So, most of you (follow) this course while you are on holiday from
work.
9 I imagine that you (have) this problem with nerves before in the past?
10 These days, public speaking (become) more and more important for
people who want to be successful in their careers.
11 At the start of the course, the pace of your presentations was way too fast. Today you
(show) us that you can control that now.
12 Congratulations! You (pass) the course so now you are ready to make an
impression on everyone you meet!

Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education

Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education