San Carlos de Guatemala University

Engineering School Technical Language Area

Sciences Department Technical Language 1
Section:
Homework 1

ID:__________________ Name: ____________________________________ Date:_________________

VERB TENSES
Use the words in parentheses for completing the text below with the appropriate tenses.

1. Every Monday, Sally (drive) ______________ her kids to football practice.

2. Usually, I (work) ______________ as a secretary at ABT, but this summer I (study) ______________ French at a
language school in Paris. That is why I am in Paris.
3. Shhhhh! Be quiet! John (sleep) ______________
4. Don't forget to take your umbrella. It (rain) ______________
5. I hate living in Seattle because it (rain, always) ______________
6. I'm sorry I can't hear what you (say) ______________ because everybody (talk) ______________ so loudly.
7. Justin (write, currently) ______________ a book about his adventures in Tibet. I hope he can find a good
publisher when he is finished.
8. Jim: Do you want to come over for dinner tonight?
Denise: Oh, I'm sorry, I can't. I (go) ______________ to a movie tonight with some friends.
9. The business cards (be, normally) ______________ printed by a company in New York. Their prices (be)
______________inexpensive, yet the quality of their work is quite good.
10. This delicious chocolate (be) ______________ made by a small chocolatier in Zurich, Switzerland.
11. Oh, yes. Alice (mention) ______________ you the other day. Gee, you (not look) ______________ like a
detective.
12. Well, thats good, I (guess) ______________.
13. Im curious. Tell me, How do you (decide) ______________ to become an undercover cop?
14. Well, when I (be) ______________ a kid, I (love) ______________ to read detective novels. By the time I (be)
______________ ten, I (read) ______________ every book in the Hardy Boys series. I (know)
______________ that I (want) ______________ to go into law enforcement.
15. But according to Alice, you (attend) ______________ law school nowadays.
16. Right. I (get) ______________ married last month. I (not mind) ______________ being on the police force
when I (be) ______________ single but ever since I (meet) ______________ Nicole, my wife, I (want)
______________ to do something dangerous.
I (understand) ______________.
17. I (follow) them for more than a month now, but so far I (not be able to) ______________________ catch them
in the act. Sometimes I (worry) that by the time theyre caught, Ill have my law degree and Ill be defending
them.
18. I ______________________ (never come) across such a big snake in my life. What about you?
19. By Saturday next week, I ______________________ (work) on this painting for exactly one month.
20. My wife and I ______________________ (have) a few problems recently and I have to admit that our
relationship ______________________ (get) a bit boring since our daughter ______________________ (leave)
for university.
 21. Even though I ______________________ (like) singing, I can say that I ______________________ (have) a
terrible voice.
22. By the year 2020, the population of London ______________________ (grow) substantially.
23. My grandparents ______________________ (come) to see us next weekend. They _____________________
(not visit) us for two years.
24. We ______________________ (look for) her ring for two hours when we found it in the bathroom.
25. They were very tired in the evening because they ______________________ (help) on the farm all day.

Using the words in parentheses, complete the text below with the appropriate tenses.

26. My English is really getting better. I (try) ________________ to learn the language since 1985, but only recently
have I been able to make some real progress. By the time I started high school in 1988, I (study)
________________ the language for almost three years; however, I was only able to introduce myself and utter
a few memorized sentences. For a couple more years, I (struggle) ________________ through grammar and
vocabulary lessons, which made absolutely no difference. Nothing worked, so I decided to study abroad.
27. I found an exchange program in England that sounded like the perfect answer. I (stay) ________________ with a
host family for one month. It was a huge disappointment! I (sit) ________________ there the whole time staring
at the host mother and father hoping that there would be some breakthrough. Nothing.
28. When I returned, I mentioned to a friend that I (have) ________________ problems with the language for years.
He recommended that I spend a year in an English speaking country. I decided to go abroad again. I (research)
________________ exchange programs for a couple of weeks and finally decided on a school in the United
States.
29. Well, it worked. I (live) ________________ and (study) ________________ in the U.S. for more than two years. I
(stay) ________________ here for at least another year before I return home. By then, I should be completely
fluent.
30. It is already 9:30 PM and I (wait) ________________ here for over an hour. If John does not get here in the next
five minutes, I am going to leave.
31. Did you hear that Ben was fired last month? He (work) ________________ for that import company for more
than ten years and he (work) ________________ in almost every department. Nobody knew the company like
he did.
32. I (see) ________________ many pictures of the pyramids before I went to Egypt. Pictures of the monuments are
very misleading. The pyramids are actually quite small.
33. Sarah (climb) ________________ the Matterhorn, (sail) ________________ around the world, and (go)
________________ on safari in Kenya. She is such an adventurous person.
34. When Melanie came into the office yesterday, her eyes were red and watery. I think she (cry)
________________.

PARTS OF THE SPEECH

Decide which parts of speech are the underlined words
35. You have to believe in yourself if you ever expect to be successful at something.
36. We left for the mountain just before six in the morning.
37. We first went to the store to buy a few things.
38. We had a breakfast at a caf near the rail station.
39. My friend wasn't strong enough to lift his heavy rucksack.
40. I helped him carry it.
41. The weather was very cold.
 42. My friend said, "Oh! What a cold weather
43. We didn't spend the night there.
44. We got back home late at night but we didn't go to sleep immediately. We were very hungry.
45. Steve can play the trumpet.
46. They listen to music every day.
47. She is an old lady
48. The group went climbing in the mountains.
49. This is a fast car.
50. He did well in the test.

Punctuation rules
Correct the paragraph below by inserting punctuation where it is needed.

Knowing where and when to use the fourteen punctuation marks found in English grammar can greatly improve your
writing skills What are the fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar They are the period question mark
exclamation point comma semicolon colon dash hyphen parentheses brackets braces apostrophe quotation marks and
ellipses

Put in semicolons, colons, dashes, quotation marks, Italics (use an underline), and parentheses where ever
they are needed in the following sentences.
51. The men in question Harold Keene, Jim Peterson, and Gerald Greene deserve awards.
52. Several countries participated in the airlift Italy, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg.
53. Only one course was open to us surrender, said the ex-major, and we did.
54. Judge Carswell later to be nominated for the Supreme Court had ruled against civil rights.
55. In last week's New Yorker, one of my favorite magazines, I enjoyed reading Leland's article How Not to Go
Camping.
56. Yes, Jim said, I'll be home by ten.
57. There was only one thing to do study till dawn.
58. Montaigne wrote the following A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.
59. The following are the primary colors red, blue, and yellow.
60. Arriving on the 8 10 plane were Liz Brooks, my old roommate her husband and Tim, their son.
61. When the teacher commented that her spelling was poor, Lynn replied All the members of my family are poor
spellers. Why not me?
62. He used the phrase you know so often that I finally said No, I don't know.
63. The automobile dealer handled three makes of cars Volkswagens, Porsches, and Mercedes Benz.
64. Though Phil said he would arrive on the 9 19 flight, he came instead on the 10 36 flight.
65. Whoever thought said Helen that Jack would be elected class president?
66. In baseball, a show boat is a man who shows off.
67. The minister quoted Isaiah 5 21 in last Sunday's sermon.
68. There was a very interesting article entitled The New Rage for Folk Singing in last Sunday's New York Times
newspaper.
69. Whoever is elected secretary of the club Ashley, or Chandra, or Aisha must be prepared to do a great deal of
work, said Jumita, the previous secretary.
70. Darwin's On the Origin of Species 1859 caused a great controversy when it appeared.