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    Learn English > English lessons and exercises > English test #106142: Such a strange trial ...1/2 Past perfect
    > Other English exercises on the same topics: | Past | Plu-perfect | Find the correct tense [Change theme]
    > Similar tests: - Past simple or present perfect - Past tenses - Past simple (video) - Modal: may/might - Past simple or continuous - Placement test 1 - Past perfect - Pluperfect
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    Such a strange trial ...1/2 Past perfect


    Remember, the tense used for narration is the   simple past .

           ex : 'The Peckam murder' led to the most unexpected murder trial I had ever seen.

     

        * As usual, if  two simultaneous past actions happened at the same time, then :

     the long (and important one) is in the -ing preterite and the short action interrupting it , is in the  simple past.

         ex:  While she was looking through her window, Mrs Salmon saw a man in Mrs Parkers's garden.

     

        * If a past action happened  before an action in the simple past, it must be in the past perfect simple (or in the past perfect in -ing

    (if we want to insist on the duration of the action ) :

                  had + verb in the past participe   or had + been + verb + ing  

    ex: Mrs Salmon said that she had seen the murderer in her neighbour's garden ...

     

       *   If you have to use the simple future, remember that it doesn't get on well with the past ...   You'll have to use  the 'conditional' : would + verb

         ex :  Being so sure of herself, Mrs Salmon would never imagine that the culprit could escape the hanging !

     

       *  You will need modal auxiliaries :  can => could   indicate a physical or intellectual capacity, and a permission (in informal language).

     

      * I would also like to insist again on  the verbs of involontary perception  which can be followed either by an infinitive without to or by an -ing  form :

       ex : Mrs Salmon heard a chair falling (= the action was in progress.)

       ex : She had seen the murderer run away from the garden ... (= the whole action had been witnessed.)

     

    Now, you must be ready to penetrate this mysterious case, after reading carefully the vocabulary I have decided to give you before entering this universe that, I suppose, you don't know very well ... As for grammar, you're ready ! Do not hesitate to save your answers in the middle of the test if you're feeling tired !

    Go for it !

     

      

    'Technical' vocabulary  :

    During a murder trial, the main characters are the judge, the lawyers ( the counsel for the defense vs. [versus] the counsel for the prosecution), the witnesses. The suspect can be found guilty(= adjective /the culprit = noun) or not guilty in which case he will be released after being acquitted. Everything will depend on  proofs (evidence= uncountable noun).

     

     

                                            

     





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    English exercise "Such a strange trial ...1/2 Past perfect" created by here4u with The test builder. [More lessons & exercises from here4u]
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    'The Peckham murder’ room to the strangest murder trial people ... Mrs Parker, an elderly lady, to death with a hammer, and Mrs Salmon and 3 other witnesses the culprit.
    At 2 o’clock in the morning, Mrs Salmon and through the very thin walls of her villa, she a noise, like a chair falling and some commotion in Mrs Parkers’s home. Consequently, out of curiosity, she to the window and Adams, the suspect, the house and a hammer into the laurel bushes. The man around, and looked up at her … and since then, she to forget him … He was tall and strong, but his face was unforgettable ; he had horrible, bulging bloodshot eyes that nobody could forget. In the witness stand, the counsel for the defense very hard on Mrs Salmon. He her so insistently about her certainty : Yes ! she was sure of herself ! The man standing in the box was the man out of Mrs Parker’s garden … She at the culprit, and didn't hesitate. The man she was wearing a blue suit and a striped tie and had these horrible eyes that Mrs Salmon’s nightmares since then … Of course, she was sure ! Could you have imagined the suspect ? Of course not ! Suddenly, all went wrong … The counsel asked Mr Adams , and there, at the other end of the court room, was the exact image of the man in the dock : his twin-brother, dressed in the same blue suit and striped tie ! Mrs Salmon couldn’t believe her eyes … and couldn’t swear which of the twins she had seen … Of course, both had alibis …
    Therefore, Adams for lack of evidence ….

    (to be continued …)








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