Past Perfect Continuous Tense (I had been doing)

A. Study this example situation:

Yesterday morning I got up and looked out of the window. The sun was shining but the ground was very wet.

It had been raining.

It was not raining when I looked out of the window; the sun was shining. But it had been raining before. That's why the ground was wet.

Had been ~ing is the past perfect continuous:

I/we/you/they had(= I'd etc.) been doing/working/playing etc.

he/she/it had (= he'd etc.) been doing/working/playing etc.

Some more examples:

* When the boys came into the house, their clothes were dirty, their hair was untidy and one of them had a black eye. They'd been fighting.

* I was very tired when I arrived home. I'd been working hard all day.

B. You can say that something had been happening for a period of time before something else happened:

* Our game of tennis was interrupted. We'd been playing for about half an hour when it started to rain very heavily.

* Ken gave up smoking two years ago. He'd been smoking for 30 years.

C. Had been ~ing (past Perfect continuous) is the past of have been ~ing (present perfect continuous). Compare:

present perfect continuous

* I hope the bus comes soon. I've been waiting for 20 minutes. (before now)

* He's out of breath. He has been running.

past perfect continuous

* At last the bus came. I'd been waiting for 20 minutes. (before the bus came)

* He was out of breath. He had been running.

D. Compare had been doing and was doing (past continuous):

* It wasn't raining when we went out. The sun was shining. But it had been raining, so the ground was wet.

* Ann was sitting in an armchair watching television. She was tired because she'd been working very hard.

E. Some verbs (for example, know and want) are not normally used in the continuous:

* We were good friends. We had known each other for years. (not 'had been knowing')

For a list of these verbs, see Unit 4A.

 

EXERCISES

1. Read the situations and make sentences from the words in brackets.

1. I was very tired when I arrived home.

(I/work/hard all day)

I had been working hard all day.

2. The two boys came into the house. They had a football and they were both very tired.

(they/play/football)

3. There was nobody in the room but there was a smell of cigarettes.

(somebody/smoke/in the room)

4. Ann woke up in the middle of the night. She was frightened and didn't know where she was.

(she/dream)

5. When I got home, Mike was sitting in front of the TV. He had just turned it off.

(he/watch/TV)

 

2. Read the situations and complete the sentences.

1. We played tennis yesterday. Half an hour after we began playing, it started to rain.

We had been playing for half an hour when it started to rain.

2. I had arranged to meet Tom in a restaurant. I arrived and waited for him. After 20 minutes I suddenly realised that I was in the wrong restaurant.

I --- for 20 minutes when I ---

3. Sarah got a job in a factory. Five years later the factory closed down.

At the time the factory ---, Sarah --- there for five years.

4. I went to a concert last week. The orchestra began playing. After about ten minutes a man in the audience suddenly began shouting.

The orchestra --- when ---

5. This time make your own sentence:

I began walking along the road. I --- when ---

 

3. Put the verb into the most suitable form, past continuous (I was doing), past perfect (I had done) or past perfect continuous (I had been doing).

1. It was very noisy next door. Our neighbours were having (have) a party.

2. We were good friends. We had known (know) each other for a long time.

3. John and I went for a walk. I had difficulty keeping up with him because he --- (walk) so fast.

4. Mary was sitting on the ground. She was out of breath. She --- (run)

5. When I arrived, everybody was sitting round the table with their mouths full. They --- (eat).

6. When I arrived, everybody was sitting round the table and talking. Their mouths were empty but their stomachs were full. They --- (eat).

7. Jim was on his hands and knees on the floor. He --- (look) for his contact lens.

8. When I arrived, Kate --- (wait) for me. She was rather annoyed with me because I was late and she --- (wait) for a very long time.

9. I was sad when I sold my car. I --- (have) it for a very long time.

10. We were extremely tired at the end of the journey. We --- (travel) for more than 24 hours.

Quiz:

What are the names of Kazakh writers:

1. He began to write during the war time. His first poems were published in 1945. Only after the war, he realized that literature was his calling. Having moved to Alma-Ata and working as an ordinary editor, he worked on his first novel "Pesnya o cheloveke" (The song about the person).

2. He wrote about the destiny of Kazakh women and promoted their emancipation. His lyrics are rich with the philosophical thoughts but his poetry quality was revealed especially in poems “Life of Wandring” (“Adaskan Omir”) and “Poor Man” (“Kedei”, 1922). It is the first poem, in which each chapter is related to a certain life period of a man and which criticizes social injustice and violence together with general philosophical and didactic thoughts.

3. He wrote the novel "Comrades" (1933), targeted against the Soviet power, but wrote loving poems such as "The Steppe" (1930) and "Kulager" (1936). He was repressed in 1937 as his writing was seen as a threat and fuel for Kazakh nationalism and he was shot on February 26, 1938.

4. He worked as editor at the Adebiet Maydany (Literary Front) Journal. He also taught student at the Kyzylorda Institute of People’s Education, Institute of Journalism in Tashkent and Kazakh Pedagogical Institute in Alma-Ata.

Практикалық сабақ 17

Сабақтың тақырыбы: My Favourite Kazakh poet

Сабақтың мазмұны:

1. Magzhan Zhumabayev

2. Comparison of Adjectives (1)

Magzhan Zhumabayev

Magzhan Zhumabayev is the great Kazakh writer, poet, and publicist, one of the founders of new Kazakh literature. His poems, tales and stories are written with acute tragic element, which expresses the feeling of responsibility for the people and appeal to sources and crucial moments in history. At the same time, Magzhan accepted common to all mankind artistic and scientific heritage from Shakespeare, Pushkin, and Solovyev to symbolism, technocracy and Schpengler. Popular nowadays existential motifs can be clearly seen in his creating work. After so many years of concealment, we revealed Magzhan Zhumabayev anew.

Magzhan Bekenuly Zhumabayev was born on 25 June 1893 in Sassykkul Tract if Sary-Aigyr volost in Petropavlovsky uezd. He died on 19 March 1938 in Alma-Ata. Magzhan comes from a rich family; his father was bii, the head of the volost. When he was four, he started to learn oriental languages and literature. Magzhan’s early poems were not preserved. He continued mastering the Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages in Begishev madrasah in Kzyl-Orda having obtained there secondary Moslem education. In 1910, he entered Galiya madrasah, the higher Islamic educational institution in Ufa City. But following the advice of his teacher, Galymzhan Ibragimov, who became the classicist of Tatar literature, Magzhan started looking for other ways of education. With Ibragimov’s help, young Magzhan’s works were published for the first time in 1912 in Kazan. In the same period with the support of Mirzhakyp Dulatov and Akmet Baitursynov, he started learning Russian, getting acquainted with Russian and European literature, and cooperates with “Kazakh” newspaper. In 1913, Magzhan entered Omsk Pedagogic Seminary. During these years in Omsk Magzhan took part in the creation of “Birlik” (Unity) Society; he was the editor of the hand-written magazine “Balapan”.

With his first steps in poetry, Magzhan reveals his unique talent. He gained wide recognition thanks to his poetic collection “Sholpan” (1912). The first stage of the creating way covers the period from 1910 to February 1917. His poems based on the historical facts appealed to the national fight for liberty. In his poem “Past” Magzhan called the names of fight heroes against Zhungar conquerors. The real hero for him was the one who “remembered about his nation”.

He dealt with journalism; he worked in the area of enlightenment, published in 1922 the book named “Pedagogy”. For certain time Magzhan was the editor of the newspaper “Bostandyk Tuy” (“Freedom Flag”) published in Omsk and after 1921 in Petropavlovsk.

Intensive and fruitful life period of Zhumabayev is related to Tashkent where he moved in 1922 and where he created his tale “Batyr Bayan”, poems about Turkestan, articles about Akan Sery, Bukhar Zhyrau, and Abubakir Divayev. He cooperated with the newspaper “Ak Zhol” and the magazine “Sholpan”. Here, in Tashkent, and in Kazan in 1922-23 he published two collections of poems where he had revealed his gifts. Magzhan belonged to the generation of the poets, which for the first time in the regions Central Asia and Kazakhstan joined two directions of spiritual development of the nations in East and West.

 

Active vocabulary: founders, tales, responsibility, appeal, sources, crucial, existential, motifs, concealment, madrasah, obtained, madrasah, advice, support, acquainted, reveals, unique fight, enlightenment, intensive and fruitful, related, revealed, gifts, belonged, generation, spiritual.

 

Practice

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