Complete the pairs of sentences. Use the Present Perfect in one sentence and the Past Simple in the other.

 

I (know)_____ her for six years. I (know) _______ him when I was at school. He (live)______ in Paris from 1997 to 2000. He (live)_____ in New York since 2001. Where's Pete? I (not see)______ him for ages. I (not see)______ Pete last night. We (be) _______ at primary school from 1993 to 1998. We (be) _______ in this class since September. I (not watch)______this video yet. I (not watch)_______a video at the weekend.

 

Put the verbs in brackets in the Past Simple or in the Present Perfect.

 

1. I ________ (never/ be) to the USA. I______ (want) to go there last summer but I couldn’t.

2. He _______ (live) in this street all his life.

3. His father ________ (come back) to London last Sunday.

4. Yan __________ (write) a letter to Nick two days ago.

5. He ________ (send) his letter yesterday.

6. They ________ (just/ buy) some postcards.

Answer the questions using Past Perfect Continuous.

 

HOW LONG HAD

1 … it been snowing when you left the old house? (for 4 hours)

2 … Eton been working before he retired? (for 20 years)

3 … Mike been living there when Janet moved in? (for a fortnight)

4 … they been studying German before they finally went to Berlin? (for 5 years)

5 …the authors been working on the novel before they sent it to a publisher? (for 2 years).

Put the words in order and make sentences.

1. went / Kate / it / for five years / had / for that company / working / when / been / out of business.

2. all day / Mark / to sit down / wanted / he / because / had /standing / been / at work.

3. teaching / a year / Jack / had / than / he / for / been / more / before / at the university / left for Asia.

4. long / studying / How / moved / you / been / Japanese / before / had / you / to Tokyo?

 

Read the text and find sentences with Past tenses (simple, continuous, perfect) and translate them in a written form.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: HISTORY

 

Capital punishment is a legal infliction of the death penalty; in modern law, corporal punishment in its most severe form. The usual alternative to the death penalty is long-term or life imprisonment.

The earliest historical records contain evidence ofcapital punishment. It wasmentioned in the Code of Hammurabi. The Bible prescribed death as the penalty for more than 30 different crimes, ranging from murder to fornication. The Draconian Code of ancient Greece imposed capital punishment for every offence.

In England, during the reign of William the Conqueror, the death penalty was not used, although the results of interrogation and torture were often fatal. By the end of the 15th century, English law recognized six major crimes: treason, murder, larceny, burglary, rape, and arson. By 1800, more than 200 capital crimes were recognized, and as a result, 1000 or more persons were sentenced to death each year (although most sentences were commuted by royal pardon). In early American colonies the death penalty was commonly authorized for a wide variety of crimes. Blacks, whether slave or free, were threatened with death for many crimes that were punished less severely when committed by whites.

Efforts to abolish the death penalty did not gather momentum until the end of the 18th century. In Europe, a short treatise, On Crimes and Punishments, by the Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria, inspired influential thinkers such as the French philosopher Voltaire to oppose torture, flogging, and the death penalty.

The abolition of capital punishment in England in November 1965 was welcomed by most people with humane and progressive ideas. To them it seemed a departure from feudalism, from the cruel pre-Christian spirit of revenge: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Many of these people think differently now. Since the abolition of capital punishment crime – and especially murder – has been on increase throughout Britain. Today, therefore, public opinion in Britain has changed. People who before, also in Parliament, stated that capital punishment was not a deterrent to murder – for there have always been murders in all countries with or without the law of execution – now feel that killing the assassin is the lesser of two evils. Capital punishment, they think, may not be the ideal answer, but it is better than nothing, especially when, as in England, a sentence of life imprisonment only lasts eight or nine years.

The fundamental questions raised by the death penalty are whether it is an effective deterrent to violent crime, and whether it is more effective than the alternative of long-term imprisonment.

DEFENDERS of the death penalty insist that because taking an offender's life is a more severe punishment than any prison term, it must be the better deterrent. SUPPORTERS also argue that no adequate deterrent in life imprisonment is effective for those already serving a life term who commit murder while being in prison, and for revolutionaries, terrorists, traitors, and spies…