Use of English Tenses (mid-term summative test)

I'm very happy _____ in India. I really miss being there.

• to live

• to have lived

• to be lived

• to be living

Answer explanation

We use the perfect infinitive or the perfect gerund of a verb to talk about a past action or event. In this sentence, we mean that I lived in India in the past, but not anymore.

They didn't reach an agreement ______ their differences.

• on account of

• due

• because

• owing

Answer explanation

We can use because of, due to, owing to, or on account of + noun to express reason.

I wish I _____ those words. But now it's too late.

• not having said

• have never said

• never said

• had never said

Answer explanation

We can use wish + past perfect to talk about things that happened in the past and that we regret (we would have wanted them to be different).

The woman, who has been missing for 10 days, is believed _____.

• to be abducted

• to be abducting

• to have been abducted

• to have been abducting

Answer explanation

After the passive form of a reporting verb, we use the perfect infinitive  when the reported action is previous to the reporting (earlier in the past).

She was working on her computer with her baby next to _____.

• herself

• her

• her own

• hers

Answer explanation

We can use reflexive pronouns after most prepositions, but we don’t use reflexive pronouns after prepositions of place; we use object pronouns instead.

_____ to offend anyone, she said both cakes were equally good.

• Not wanting

• As not wanting

• She didn't want

• Because not wanting

Answer explanation

We can use –ing participle clauses to refer to the present or the past.

_____ in trying to solve this problem. It's clearly unsolvable.

• There's no point

• It's no point

• There isn't point

• It's no need

Answer explanation

We often use there with use, point and need.

Last year, when I last met her, she told me she _____ a letter every day for the last two months.

• had written

• has written

• had been writing

• wrote

Answer explanation

We use the past perfect continuous with dynamic verbs to talk about repeated actions from earlier in the past.

He _____ robbed as he was walking out of the bank.

• did

• got

• had

• were

Answer explanation

In informal English, we can use get in passive voice sentences instead of be.

_____ forced to do anything. He acted of his own free will.

• In no way was he

• No way he was

• In any way he was

• In any way was he

Answer explanation

In formal English we can place a negative or restrictive adverb at the beginning of a sentence to make the sentence more emphatic or dramatic. When we do this, the adverb is then followed by auxiliary verb + subject. When there is no auxiliary verb, we use do/does (present) or did (past) as auxiliary.