1. Complete the sentences with the past perfect forms of the verbs in the box.
steal work get up miss stop leave begin finish |
1 By the time we got to the station, my sister’s train …had… already …left… .
2 When my grandmother phoned, I …………… just …………… doing my homework.
3 He …………… really hard at school all year, so he got excellent marks in his exams.
4 Anthony arrived late for school this morning because he …………… late.
5 When they got to the cinema, the film …………… just …………… .
6 When he got back from holiday, he found that someone …………… his car.
7 We had to take a taxi home from the station because we …………… the last bus.
8 The two men …………… arguing by the time the police arrived.
Answer
2 had, finished 3 had worked 4 had got up 5 had, begun
6 had stolen 7 had missed 8 had stopped
2. Complete the text with the past simple or past perfect forms of the verbs in brackets.
We (1) …had… (have) a terrible journey on the way to Barcelona. The problems (2) ……………… (begin) when we (3) ……………… (leave) home at 6.30 in the morning. There (4) ……………… (be) a huge traffic jam on the motorway because two lorries (5) ……………… (crash) and the road (6) ……………… (be) completely blocked.
By the time we (7) ……………… (reach) the airport, we (8) ……………… (miss) our flight. It (9) ……………… (take) off five minutes before we (10) ……………… (arrive) at the check-in desk. We (11) ……………… (try) to buy some tickets for the next flight to Barcelona, but they (12) ……………… (sell) all the seats. In the end, we (13) ……………… (buy) tickets for a flight at 7 o’clock that evening and (14) ……………… (spend) the whole day at the airport.
We (15) ……………… (land) in Barcelona at 21:45, but we (16) ……………… (not collect) our suitcases from the arrivals hall until 11 o’clock because there (17) ……………… (be) a baggage handlers’ strike that day. By the time our taxi driver (18) ……………… (find) our hotel, the restaurant (19) ……………… (close), so we (20) ……………… (go) straight to bed without having dinner.
Answer
2 began 3 left 4 was 5 had crashed 6 was 7 reached 8 had missed
9 had taken 10 arrived 11 tried 12 had sold 13 bought 14 spent
15 landed 16 didn’t collect 17 had been 18 found 19 had closed 20 went
3. Complete the text with the past perfect form of the verbs in brackets.
Staff at a supermarket were surprised to find a tiger in their shop on Monday morning. The tiger (1) …had gone…… (go) into the supermarket because it was hungry. It (2) ……………… (break) the door to get in, but the alarm (3) ……………… (not go) off because the shop manager (4) ……………… (forget) to put it on. The tiger (5) ……………… (make) a terrible mess in the shop. It (6) ……………… (find) the meat section and it (7) ……………… (eat) a lot of the meat from the fridges. The police gave the tiger some more meat with a drug in it. When the tiger (8) ……………… (finish) eating the drugged meat, it fell asleep. Then the police took the tiger back to the zoo. The tiger (9) ……………… (escape) from the zoo the previous night, after a zoo worker (10) ……………… (leave) a cage open.
Answer
1 had gone 2 had broken 3 hadn’t gone 4 had forgotten
5 had made 6 had found 7 had eaten 8 had finished
9 had escaped 10 had left
4. Match the sentence halves.
1 ..f.. When she turned on the TV …
2 …… Yesterday I found some old pictures …
3 …… When I checked my emails after my holiday, …
4 …… When I started my meal, …
5 …… The flat was dark when we got home …
6 …… They didn’t know what to do …
a everybody else had already finished.
b I saw that I’d received over 200!
c because they hadn’t listened to the instructions.
d because we’d forgotten to leave the light on.
e which I’d drawn when I was a child.
f the programme had already started.
Answer
1 f 2 e 3 b 4 a 5 d 6 c
5. Complete the sentences with one past simple and one past perfect form of the verbs in brackets.
1 Nobody …came…… (come) to the meeting because Jed …had forgotten…… (forget) to send the invitations.
2 Zofia ………………… (arrive) late because her bus ………………… (break) down.
3 My parents ………………… (not go) to Rome before, so they ………………… (be) really excited.
4 Fred ………………… (not do) his homework when the teacher ………………… (ask) for it.
5 By the time I ………………… (find) the website, they ………………… (sell) all the tickets.
6 The kitchen ………………… (be) very messy because I ………………… (not have) time to clean up.
7 I ………………… (never fly) before so I ………………… (feel) very nervous.
8 ………………… (the match / finished) when you ………………… (get) there?
Answer
1 came; had forgotten 2 arrived; had broken
3 hadn’t gone; were 4 hadn’t done; asked 5 found; had sold
6 was; hadn’t had 7 had never flown; felt
8 Had the match finished; got
6. Which action in the sentences happened first? Write 1 or 2.
1 …… I arrived late for my flight, because …… I’d written the wrong time in my diary.
2 …… The man had run away by the time …… the police got there.
3 …… When I saw the questions in the exam, I realised …… I’d revised the wrong things.
4 …… It had snowed in the night and …… some of the roads were closed.
5 …… I was tired, because …… I’d worked so hard the day before.
Answer
1 2 1 2 1 2 3 2 1 4 1 2 5 2 1
7. Choose the correct answers.
A (1) Did you read / Had you read the story about the man who was almost attacked by a shark yesterday?
B No, what (2) happened / had happened?
A He was swimming and he (3) saw / had seen a dolphin next to him. Then suddenly, the dolphin (4) hit / had hit a shark. The swimmer (5) didn’t see / hadn’t seen the shark before the dolphin hit it!
B That’s incredible. Well, I (6) read / had read another nice animal story. There was a goat that (7) looked after / had looked after a farmer for five days. The farmer (8) fell / had fallen over and he couldn’t walk or get help.
Answer
1 Did you read 2 happened 3 saw 4 hit 5 hadn’t seen
6 read 7 looked after 8 had fallen
Related Posts
- WORDPOWER: age – English Grammar Exercises for A2
- WORDPOWER: preposition + noun – English Grammar Exercises for A2
- WORDPOWER: Multi-word verbs with on – English Grammar Exercises for A2
- WORDPOWER: Multi-word verbs with put – English Grammar Exercises for A2
- WORDPOWER: by – English Grammar Exercises for A2
- WORDPOWER: change – English Grammar Exercises for A2