Test of English Tenses (1)

Direction: Choose the choice that best completes each blank in the passage.

Not long ago, many people __1___ that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry. Some people ___2__ babies were not able to learn things until they ___3__five or six months old.

Yet doctors in the United States __4___ babies begin learning on their first day of life. The National Institute of Child Health and Development __5___ a federal government agency. Its goal __6___ to identify which experiences can influence healthy development in human beings.

Research scientists at the institute __7___ that babies are strongly influenced by their environment. They say a baby ___8__ if her mother does something the baby __9___. A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver. This is how babies __10___ to connect and communicate with other humans.

The American researchers say this ability to learn __11___ in a baby even before birth. They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they __12___ while they were still developing inside their mothers.

One study shows that babies can learn before they __13___ born. The researchers placed a tape recorder on the stomach of a pregnant woman. Then, they __14___ a recording of a short story.

On the day the baby was born, the researchers ___15__ to find out if he knew the sounds of the story repeated while inside his mother. They did this by placing a device in the mouth of the newborn baby.

1. a. believe b. believed c. is believing d. will believe

2. a. think b. thoughtc. were thinking d. had

thought

3. a. are b. werec. have been d. will be

4. a. say b. saidc. is saying d. has said

5. a. is b. wasc. has been d. had been

6. a. is b. wasc. has been d. had been

7. a. note b. notedc. was noting d. have noted

8. a. smile b. is smilingc. was smiling d. smiled

9. a. likes b. likedc. will like d. is liking

10. a. learn b. is learningc. learnt d. have learnt

11. a. exists b. is existingc. has existed d. existed

12. a. hear b. heard c. were hearing d. had heard

13. a. are b. werec. will be d. had been

14. a. play b. playedc. were playing d. are playing

15. a. test b. are testingc. tested d. have

tested

Test of English Tenses (2)

Direction: Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs given in parentheses.

The Love Letters

Ming-fu and Lee met at a party. For Ming-fu, it was love at first sight. "Hello," he said to Lee. "I'm Ming-fu." Lee ____1____(look) at him and ____2____(smile). "Hi," she said. "I'm Lee." Ming-fu and Lee laughed and _____(talk) all evening. When they ____3____(leave) the party, it was 2 A.M.

For the next year, Ming-fu and Lee ____4____(be) together every weekend. They ____5____(go) everywhere together - to movies, to parks, to museums, and to restaurants.

One night, at a romantic restaurant, Ming-fu asked Lee, "Will you marry me?" No," Lee answered. "I'm not ready to get married."

"I cant' believe it!" Ming-fu thought. "Lee ______6_____(not want) to marry me! But I ____7____(love) her! What can I do?"

Ming-fu ___8____(begin) writing love letters to Lee. Every day he _____9____(write) a letter and mailed it to her. "I love you," he said in his letters. "Marry me."

Every day the same mailman _____10_____(deliver) Ming-fu's letter to Lee. The mailman always smiled when he ___11____(give) Lee a letter. "Another letter from your boyfriend," he ___12_____(say).

Ming-fu ___13____(send) Lee a love letter every day for two years-700 letters all together. Finally Lee said, "I'm ready to get married now."

___14____ Lee marry Ming-fu? No, she didn't. She ___15_____(marry) the