Past tenses: More practice

Task 1 Read these sentences. Name the verb tenses in bold. 1. A million Chinese people have moved to Africa in the past 20 years.Answer: present perfect 2. My Chinese friend moved to Africa last month.Answer: past simple 3. It was raining when my Chinese friend arrived in Africa.Answer: past continuous , past simple 4. My Chinese friend had moved to Africa before I started university.Answer: past perfect , past simple Task 2 Choose the sentence which best matches each timeline. A million Chinese people have moved to Africa in the past 20 years. My Chinese friend moved to Africa last month. It was raining when my Chinese friend arrived in Africa. My Chinese friend had moved to Africa before I started university. A million Chinese people have moved to Africa in the past 20 years. My Chinese friend moved to Africa last month. It was raining when my Chinese friend arrived in Africa. My Chinese friend had moved to Africa before I started university. A million Chinese people have moved to Africa in the past 20 years. My Chinese friend moved to Africa last month. It was raining when my Chinese friend arrived in Africa. My Chinese friend had moved to Africa before I started university. A million Chinese people have moved to Africa in the past 20 years. My Chinese friend moved to Africa last month. It was raining when my Chinese friend arrived in Africa. My Chinese friend had moved to Africa before I started university. Task 3 Complete the table with appropriate functions of each verb tense. Present perfect Past simple Past continuous Past perfect describes an action or event that started in the past and continues until the present describes a short action or event that is finished describes an event or action in the past that was in progress describes a past event that happened before another past event referring to studies and research by other academics describes a long action or event that is finished describes a long event or action in the past that was interrupted or overlapped describes a repeated action or event that is finished Task 4 Fill in the blanks with the correct tense of the verb in brackets. 1. It was raining (rain) yesterday when I came (come) home. 2. He played (play) football every day when he was (be) in high school. 3. Studies have shown (show) that studying abroad helps students become more independent. 4. More than 90,000 people have studied (study) at the university since the 1950s. 5. She was walking (walk) home from school when she saw (see) a black cat. 6. First, I wrote (write) the main body of my essay. Then I used (use) that to complete my introduction and conclusion. Task 5 What did you do before coming to Scotland? Write a short paragraph describing your life before you came here. You could write about previous studies, jobs or hobbies. Try to use these tenses at least once:Past simplePresent perfectPast continuousPast perfect