1.1. Paco has been watching documentaries since he arrived

Icono de iDevice Solved exercise

Now let's revise THE USE of Present Perfect Simple and Present Perfect Continuous. Click on the video and listen to the explanation:

 

According to the video, which tense is used for...?

a) The result of something that happened in the past is important in the present.

b) An action that has just stopped or is still going on.


Pregunta de Selección Múltiple

Read the sentences and decide if they must go in the Present Perfect Simple or Continuous. Remember:

PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS

-It emphasizes the result of an activity.

-How many times an activity happens.

-It emphasizes the process of an activity.

-How long an activity continues.

 

1. I _________________________ these magazines all morning.

a) have read
b) have been reading



2. They _____________________ 20 pages so far.
a) have translated
b) have been translating



3. How many poems ________________________ today?
a) have you read
b) have you been reading



4. You look tired! _________________________ today?
a) Have you worked
b) Have you been working



5. ________________________ the postcard yet?
a) Have you sent
b) Have you been sending



Icono IDevice Further knowledge
For further practice on these two tenses, click here.

Icono de iDevice Solved exercise: 'for' and 'since'

Do you remember when to use 'for' and 'since'?

FOR period of time
SINCE point in time

Where would you place each of these expressions?

  • two hours
  • this morning
  • we were children
  • 1995
  • a while
  • a long time

Icono IDevice Curiosity

Did you know that the popular film Out of Africa was filmed in Nairobi?


By Steve Jurvetson, C. Commons

 

This is a 1985 film, directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Meryl Streep plays the role of a Dutch Baroness, who goes to live in Africa with her husband with the purpose of starting a dairy farm together. Instead of this, her husband spends her money in a coffee plantation, and their marriage turns to be a failure. She also meets Denys (Robert Redford), whose freedom and love for Africa contradicts the Baroness's life of European furniture and desire to spread European beliefs and customs among the native people.

 


We have finished with the verb tense revision. In the next section we are going to have a look at modal verbs.