Complete the 12 sentences below. Choose the best answer for each one. Some sentences have two correct answers. Choose both.
1By the time the journal issue went to press, the author ............... the final paragraph twice to soften the claim.
Wrong!
Use the past perfect to show the revision happened before the later past event of going to press.
2In the introduction, she writes as if the debate ............... settled, but the footnotes tell a different story.
Wrong!
In this 'as if' clause, the past simple is the natural choice to present the debate as already settled (even if that is misleading).
3For months, the committee ............... the same wording, which is why the policy still reads oddly.
Wrong!
Use the present perfect continuous to show an ongoing repeated activity up to now.
4Hardly ............... the keynote begun when the live transcript started misquoting him.
Wrong!
After hardly, formal inversion typically uses the past perfect: hardly had.
5The report claims the figures ............... independently verified, yet no methodology is provided.
Wrong!
Use the present perfect passive to indicate a claimed completed verification with present relevance.
6I ............... the draft by tonight, but the argument still needs tightening before submission.
Wrong!
Use the future perfect to show completion by a specific future deadline.
7At the time of the interview, she ............... the monograph for nearly a decade, so the hesitation was telling.
Wrong!
Use the past perfect continuous to show an activity in progress up to a past point.
8If the editor ............... earlier, the ambiguity would not have slipped through peer review.
Wrong!
This is a third conditional, so the if-clause takes the past perfect.
9The author ............... that the term is neutral, but the corpus evidence suggests otherwise.
Wrong!
Use the present simple for a current stance stated in the text.
10Until the retraction, few readers ............... how heavily the conclusion depended on one dataset.
Select 2 answers.
Wrong!
Both past simple and past perfect can work: past simple states what happened up to that point; past perfect highlights that the realising occurred before the retraction.
11This is the third time the publisher ............... the style guide in as many years.
Wrong!
With 'This is the third time', use the present perfect to count repeated events up to now.
12By the end of the seminar, we ............... the same objection from three different disciplines.
Wrong!
Use the past simple for what happened during the seminar as a completed event.
Done.
Score: 0/12
Answers
- By the time the journal issue went to press, the author had revised the final paragraph twice to soften the claim.
- In the introduction, she writes as if the debate was settled, but the footnotes tell a different story.
- For months, the committee has been debating the same wording, which is why the policy still reads oddly.
- Hardly had the keynote begun when the live transcript started misquoting him.
- The report claims the figures have been independently verified, yet no methodology is provided.
- I will have finished the draft by tonight, but the argument still needs tightening before submission.
- At the time of the interview, she had been writing the monograph for nearly a decade, so the hesitation was telling.
- If the editor had intervened earlier, the ambiguity would not have slipped through peer review.
- The author argues that the term is neutral, but the corpus evidence suggests otherwise.
- Until the retraction, few readers realised/had realised how heavily the conclusion depended on one dataset.
- This is the third time the publisher has updated the style guide in as many years.
- By the end of the seminar, we heard the same objection from three different disciplines.
