1. I’m trying to study. I have been trying to study for the last hour, but something always seems to interrupt me. I think I’d better go to the library.
2. The children are playing basketball right now. They have been playing for almost two hours. They must be getting tired.
3. The telephone has rung four times in the last hour, and each time it has been for my roommate.
4. The telephone has been ringing for almost a minute. Why doesn’t someone answer it?
5. It has been raining all day. I wonder when it will stop.
6. We have had three accidents so far this week. I wonder how many more we will have if you keep using the tools carelessly.
7. We have been living here since last June.
8. My little son is dirty from head to foot because he has been playing in the mud.
9. What’s the matter? Your eyes are red and puffy. I hope you have not cried. Oh, now I understand. You have been peeling some onions.
10. Hello, Rob. I’m happy to see you again. I haven't seen you for weeks. What have you been doing lately?
11. I haven't been able to reach my boss on the phone yet. I have been trying for the last twenty minutes, but the line has been busy.
12. We have had three major snowstorms so far this winter. I wonder how many more we will have.
13. I have written to them three times, but I still haven’t received a reply.
14. A: Dr. Harrison is a good teacher. How long has he been teaching at the university? B: He has been teaching here for almost 25 years. 15. A: What are you going to order for dinner? B: Well, I have had pizza. So I think, I’ll order that.
16. My uncle has been painting the outside of his house for three weeks and he’s still not finished.
17. The Smiths are presently in Tunisia. They have been travelling throughout North Africa since the middle of May. They’ll return home in another month.
C) Use THE PRESENT PERFECT TENSE or THE PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS to fill in the blanks:
1. I’m tired. We have been walking for over an hour. Let’s stop and rest for a while.
2. The zoo isn’t far from here. I have walked there many times.
3. I have written to my friends at least a dozen letters since I left home and came home.
4. Sally is writing a letter to her boyfriend. She has been writing it since she got home from class. It’s going to be a long letter.
5. The telephone has rung four times in the last hour, and each time it has been for my roommate.
6. The telephone has been ringing for almost a minute. Why doesn’t someone answer it?
7. She is 80 and she has never read a book in her life.
8. The secretary is very tired. She has been typing all morning.
9. Tom is reading a book. He started two hours ago and he is on page 53. He has been reading for two hours.
10. Hello! I have been cleaning the windows. So far I have cleaned five of them and there are two more to do.
11. My grandfather died 30 years ago. I have never met him.
Не знаю то или не то ну вот Contents The Reader of Books Mr Wormwood, the Great Car Dealer The Hat and the Superglue The Ghost Arithmetic The Platinum-Blond Man Miss Honey The Trunchbull The Parents Throwing the Hammer Bruce Bogtrotter and the Cake Lavender The Weekly Test The First Miracle The Second Miracle Miss Honey’s Cottage Miss Honey’s Story The Names The Practice The Third Miracle A New HomeThe Reader of Books It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful. Some parents go further. They become so blinded by adoration they manage to convince themselves their child has qualities of genius. Well, there is nothing very wrong with all this. It’s the way of the world. It is only when the parents begin telling us about the brilliance of their own revolting offspring, that we start shouting, "Bring us a basin! We’re going to be sick!" School teachers suffer a good deal from having to listen to this sort of twaddle from proud parents, but they usually get their own back when the time comes to write the end-of-term reports. If I were a teacher I would cook up some real scorchers for the children of doting parents. "Your son Maximilian", I would write, "is a total wash- out. I hope you have a family business you can push him into when he leaves school because he sure as heck won’t get a job anywhere else." Or if I were feeling lyrical that day, I might write, "It is a curious truth that grasshoppers have their hearing-organs in the sides of the abdomen. Your daughter Vanessa, judging by what she’s learnt this term, has no hearing-organs at all." I might even delve deeper into natural history and say, "The periodical cicada spends six years as a grub underground, and no more than six days as a free creature of sunlight and air. Your son Wilfred has spent six years as a grub in this school and we are still waiting for him to emerge from the chrysalis." A particularly poisonous little girl might sting me into saying, "Fiona has the same glacial beauty as an iceberg, but unlike the iceberg she has absolutely nothing below the surface." I think I might enjoy writing end-of-term reports for the stinkers in my class. But enough of that. We have to get on. Occasionally one comes across parents who take the opposite line, who show no interest at all in their children, and these of course are far worse than the doting ones. Mr and Mrs Wormwood were two such parents. They had a son called Michael and a daughter called Matilda, and the parents looked upon Matilda in particular as nothing more than a scab. A scab is something you have to put up with until the time comes when you can pick it off and flick it away. Mr and Mrs Wormwood looked forward enormously to the time when they could pick their little daughter off and flick her away, preferably into the next county or even further than that. It is bad enough when parents treat ordinary children as though they were scabs and bunions, but it becomes somehow a lot worse when the child in question is extraordinary, and by that I mean sensitive and brilliant. Matilda was both of these things, but above all she was brilliant. Her mind was so nimble and she was so quick to learn that her ability should have been obvious even to the most half-witted of parents. But Mr and Mrs Wormwood were both so gormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter.
1. I’m trying to study. I have been trying to study for the last hour, but something always seems to interrupt me. I think I’d better go to the library.
2. The children are playing basketball right now. They have been playing for almost two hours. They must be getting tired.
3. The telephone has rung four times in the last hour, and each time it has been for my roommate.
4. The telephone has been ringing for almost a minute. Why doesn’t someone answer it?
5. It has been raining all day. I wonder when it will stop.
6. We have had three accidents so far this week. I wonder how many more we will have if you keep using the tools carelessly.
7. We have been living here since last June.
8. My little son is dirty from head to foot because he has been playing in the mud.
9. What’s the matter? Your eyes are red and puffy. I hope you have not cried. Oh, now I understand. You have been peeling some onions.
10. Hello, Rob. I’m happy to see you again. I haven't seen you for weeks. What have you been doing lately?
11. I haven't been able to reach my boss on the phone yet. I have been trying for the last twenty minutes, but the line has been busy.
12. We have had three major snowstorms so far this winter. I wonder how many more we will have.
13. I have written to them three times, but I still haven’t received a reply.
14. A: Dr. Harrison is a good teacher. How long has he been teaching at the university? B: He has been teaching here for almost 25 years. 15. A: What are you going to order for dinner? B: Well, I have had pizza. So I think, I’ll order that.
16. My uncle has been painting the outside of his house for three weeks and he’s still not finished.
17. The Smiths are presently in Tunisia. They have been travelling throughout North Africa since the middle of May. They’ll return home in another month.
C) Use THE PRESENT PERFECT TENSE or THE PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS to fill in the blanks:
1. I’m tired. We have been walking for over an hour. Let’s stop and rest for a while.
2. The zoo isn’t far from here. I have walked there many times.
3. I have written to my friends at least a dozen letters since I left home and came home.
4. Sally is writing a letter to her boyfriend. She has been writing it since she got home from class. It’s going to be a long letter.
5. The telephone has rung four times in the last hour, and each time it has been for my roommate.
6. The telephone has been ringing for almost a minute. Why doesn’t someone answer it?
7. She is 80 and she has never read a book in her life.
8. The secretary is very tired. She has been typing all morning.
9. Tom is reading a book. He started two hours ago and he is on page 53. He has been reading for two hours.
10. Hello! I have been cleaning the windows. So far I have cleaned five of them and there are two more to do.
11. My grandfather died 30 years ago. I have never met him.
12. A: Is your father at home?
B: No, I’m afraid he has gone out.
A: When exactly did he go out?
B: About ten minutes ago.
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Contents
The Reader of Books Mr Wormwood, the Great Car Dealer
The Hat and the Superglue
The Ghost Arithmetic The Platinum-Blond Man Miss Honey
The Trunchbull The Parents Throwing the Hammer
Bruce Bogtrotter and the Cake
Lavender The Weekly Test
The First Miracle The Second Miracle Miss Honey’s Cottage
Miss Honey’s Story
The Names The Practice
The Third Miracle A New HomeThe Reader of Books
It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.
Some parents go further. They become so blinded by adoration they manage to convince themselves their child has qualities of genius.
Well, there is nothing very wrong with all this. It’s the way of the world. It is only when the parents begin telling us about the brilliance of their own revolting offspring, that we start shouting, "Bring us a basin! We’re going to be sick!"
School teachers suffer a good deal from having to listen to this sort of twaddle from proud parents, but they usually get their
own back when the time comes to write the end-of-term reports. If I were a teacher I would cook up some real scorchers for the children of doting parents. "Your son Maximilian", I would write, "is a total wash- out. I hope you have a family business you can push him into when he leaves school because he sure as heck won’t get a job anywhere else." Or if I were feeling lyrical that day, I might write, "It is a curious truth that grasshoppers have their hearing-organs in the sides of the abdomen. Your daughter Vanessa, judging by what she’s learnt this term, has no hearing-organs at all."
I might even delve deeper into natural history and say, "The periodical cicada spends six years as a grub underground, and no more than six days as a free creature of
sunlight and air. Your son Wilfred has spent six years as a grub in this school and we are still waiting for him to emerge from the chrysalis." A particularly poisonous little girl might sting me into saying, "Fiona has the same glacial beauty as an iceberg, but unlike the iceberg she has absolutely nothing below the surface." I
think I might enjoy writing end-of-term reports for the stinkers in my class. But enough of that. We have to get on.
Occasionally one comes across parents who take the opposite line, who show no interest at all in their children, and these of course are far worse than the doting ones. Mr and Mrs Wormwood were two such parents. They had a son called Michael and a daughter called Matilda, and the parents
looked upon Matilda in particular as nothing more than a scab. A scab is something you have to put up with until the time comes when you can pick it off and flick it away. Mr and Mrs Wormwood looked forward enormously to the time when they could pick their little daughter off and flick her away, preferably into the next county or even further than that.
It is bad enough when parents treat ordinary children as though they were scabs and bunions, but it becomes somehow a lot worse when the child in question is extraordinary, and by that I mean sensitive and brilliant. Matilda was both of these things, but above all she was brilliant. Her mind was so nimble and she was so quick to learn that her ability should have been obvious even to the most half-witted of
parents. But Mr and Mrs Wormwood were both so gormless and so wrapped up in their own silly little lives that they failed to notice anything unusual about their daughter.