1.

NARRATIVE TENSES

A) ARMAGEDDON: Listen and complete (past simple)

This is the Earth at a time when the dinosaurs ________________ the lush and fertile planet. A piece of rock just 6 miles wide
________________ all that. It _____________ with a force of ten thousand nuclear weapons. A trillion tons of dirt and rock
_______________ into the atmosphere creating a suffocating blanket of dust the sun ___________ powerless to penetrate for a
thousand years. It ________________ before, it will happen again. It’s just a question of when.

B) CHOCOLAT: PAST SIMPLE & PAST CONTINUOUS Complete the text with the correct verb in the past.
Your grandfather, George Rocher, __________ the young apothecary of the town of Orly Ribas. It __________ Anouk’s
favourite story. Always __________ in the same words: George __________ honest, prosperous and trusted by his customers.
But George __________ content. He __________ there should be more to life than dispensing liver oil.In the spring of 1927 the
Societé Pharmaceutique __________ an expedition to Central America to study the medicinal properties of certain natural
compounds. George __________ the expedition’s most eager volunteer. But his adventure __________ a turn he __________
One night he __________ invited to drink unrefined cacao with a pinch of chilli. The very same drink the Ancient Maya
__________ in their sacred ceremonies. The Maya __________ cacao __________ the power to unlock hidden yearnings and
reveal destinies. And so it __________ that George first __________ Chitza. Now, George had been raised a good Catholic. But
in his romance with Chitza he __________ willing to slightly bend the rules of Christian courtship. The tribal elders __________
to warn George about her. She __________ one of the wanderers. Her people __________ with the north wind from village to
village dispensing ancient remedies. Never settling down. Not a good choice for a bride. George __________ heed their
warning. And for a while it __________ that he and Chitza might lead a happy life together in France. Alas, the clever north wind
__________ other plans. One morning, George __________ to discover that Chitza and the little girl Vianne had gone away.
Mother and daughter __________ fated to wander from village to village dispensing ancient cacao remedies. Travelling with the
wind just as Chitza’s people had done for generations...

be, feel, form, move, tell, trust, try, take, seem, be invented, auxiliary(not), use, hold, believe, awake, have

C) JERRY MAGUIRE: PAST SIMPLE & PAST CONTINUOUS. Complete the text with the correct verb in the past.

It __________ 1) the oddest, most unexpected thing. I. __________ 2) what they call a mission statement, not a memo a
mission statement. You know, a suggestion for the future of our company.

A night like this doesn’t come along very often. I seized it. What _____________ 3) out as one page. __________ 4) twenty-five.
Suddenly, I was my father’s son again. I ____________________(5) the simple pleasures of this job. How I
____________________(6) up here out of Law school. The way a stadium sounds when one of my players performs well on the
field. The way we are meant to protect them in health… and in injury with so many clients, we ____________________(7) what
was important.

I ____________________(8) and ____________________(9) and ____________________(10) ____________________(11)

and I am not even a writer I ____________________(12) even the words of the original sports agent, my mentor, the great Dicky
Fox who ____________________(13)

 The key to this business is personal relationships.

Suddenly it was all pretty clear. The answer was fewer clients less money, more attention. Caring for them, caring for ourselves
and the games too. Just starting our lives…. Really. Hey! I’ll be the first to admit it. What I ____________________ (14) was
somewhat … touchy-feely. I ____________________ (15) I had lost the ability to bullshit. It was the me I’d always wanted to
be.
I ____________________ (16) in a bag to a Copy- Mat in the middle of the night and ___________________(17) up a hundred
copies. Even the cover ____________________ (18) like the Catcher in the Rye. I _________________(19) it “ The Things We
Think and Do Not Say. The Future of Our Business”.

 That’s how you become great, man. Hang your balls out there.
 Thanks.
Everybody ____________________ (20) a copy.

D)THE CIDER HOUSE RULES: Fill in the gaps with a suitable verb (infinitive, present simple, past simple, past
perfect)

1. In other parts of the world young men _________ home and _____________far and wide in search of a
2. promising future. Their journeys ___________ often fuelled by dreams of triumphing over evil, finding a
3. great love, or the hope of fortunes easily ______________. Here in St Cloud’s, not even the decision to
4. ________________ the train is easily ____________, for it _________an earlier more difficult decision:
5. add a child to your life or leave one behind. The only reason people _________________here, is for the
6. orphanage. I ________________here as a physician to the abandoned children and unhappily pregnant
7. women. I _____________________to become a hero. But in St Cloud’s there ______________no such
8. position. In the lonely sordid world of lost children there ______________no heroes to be found. And so
9. I _________the caretaker of many, the father of none. Well, in a way, there __________one. His name
10. ______________Homer Wells. Nurse Angela _________________him. Her father ________________
11. wells and she once ________________a cat named Homer. He __________________. Orphan babies
12. _________________there ______________no point in it. Thus _______________Homer returned. He
13. _________too happy a baby. The second family to adopt him _________a gift for getting sounds out of
14. Homer. They _________him. He ___________stop crying. Here in St. Cloud’s, I _________to consider,
15. with each rule I ____________or ___________that my first priority _________an orphan’s future. Twice
16. _________, twice _________. It ________________well. And yet it _________ always clear to me that
17. he ____________a special boy.It _________with Homer’s future in mind that I _________his tutorials. I
18. __________ that our lessons _________in part, the simple expression of a father’s love. But in failing to
19. withhold love, in making the orphanage his home ____________I ____________a true and everlasting
20. orphan? And so my excellent pupil _________to look after abandoned children and to deliver unwanted
21. babies. Long ago, I __________________that sometimes it _________the women which _________to
22. be delivered.

E. USED TO WOULD

OK there are two things I remember about my childhood. I just don’t remember it being this orange. First, I remember being with
my dad. He ___________ these far-off looks in his eye, and he ____________, “Life doesn’t always turn up the way you plan”. I
wish I _____________ at the time he _____________ about my life. But that never ___________ us from taking our adventures
together. He ___________ up our sometimes-working car and __________ me amazing stories about strange and exotic lands
as we ____________ off to exciting destinations like…Milwaukee. It’s amazing how exotic Wisconsin …_________. But my
favourite memories were the stories that he ______________ me about my mom. He _____________ me to the church where
they ______________ and I’d beg him to tell me more about the ceremony and about my crazy uncle Irwin, Who
_______________ in the macarroni and cheese. And I asked my dad when he ________ that truly loved my mom. And he
__________ to me “ Lucy, your mother ______________ me a special gift. She _________ me the world” Actually it was a globe
with a light in it. But for the romantic that he was, it might as well have been the world. Well the first time I ____________ him.
He __________ exactly ___________ me the world. It was a $ 1.15, uh, a train token. Ah, but I – I looked forward to it every
single day. He started ____________ to my booth between 8.01 and 8.15 every morning, Monday through Friday. And he was
just perfect. My Prince Charming. Well, we’ve ne--, we’ve never actually ____________. But I know some day I ___________ a
way to introduce myself. And that’s _______________ perfect, just like my prince.