Choosing the Right Tense in a Narrative Gap-Fill
A grammar item presents a short narrative with numbered gaps and a base verb in brackets for each. The narrative opens: "Last December, when I (1)____ (arrive) in Lubango, it (2)____ (rain) heavily, and the streets (3)____ (be) already flooded." Candidate Paulo writes "arrived" for gap 1, "was raining" for gap 2, and "were" for gap 3. A later gap reads: "By the time we (4)____ (reach) the hotel, we (5)____ (walk) for two hours." Paulo writes "reached" and "walked". The marking scheme awards one mark per gap and gives no partial credit.
1. Evaluate Paulo's answers for gaps 1-3 against the time signals in the sentence.
Read the worked answer
All three are defensible and should score.
- Gap 1: "arrived" - "Last December" plus "when" anchors a completed past event. Simple past is the standard choice.
- Gap 2: "was raining" - the past continuous sets the background action in progress when the arrival happened. This is the textbook past-simple + past-continuous contrast, so it is correct and arguably the intended answer.
- Gap 3: "were" - "the streets" is plural, so the plural past form is required. Correct. Key check: Paulo has not confused tense with aspect. He has distinguished a punctual event (arrived) from an ongoing state (was raining), which is exactly what the item is testing.
2. Evaluate Paulo's answers for gaps 4 and 5, and explain the rule he may have missed.
Read the worked answer
- Gap 4: "reached" - correct. After "By the time" referring to a past point, the clause describing that point takes the simple past.
- Gap 5: "walked" - incorrect. The phrase "for two hours" with "by the time we reached" describes an action completed before a past reference point. English requires the past perfect: "had walked". Simple past "walked" would suggest the walking happened at the same time as reaching, which contradicts "for two hours" and "by the time". Rule: by the time + simple past in one clause pairs with past perfect in the clause describing the earlier, completed action. Diagnostic: Paulo is applying "past context → past tense" mechanically. He needs to ask a second question: is this action earlier than the reference point? If yes, past perfect.