the appropriate present tense to pick

[engee30]

Good day to everyone

It's been a while since my last post here, but I've been extremely busy with something else, something not concerning the English language.
Still, I need your help as regards the following sentence (CPE level task):

Put the verbs in brackets into the appropriate present tense:
He ... (study) most of the year, but now it's summer, he ... (work) in a shop.

The thing is there's only one key answer to this sentence. What I'd like to get is your take on the sentence. What tenses would be appropriate to use in your opinion? I'm going to give you the key answer later on.

Thanks for any response.

[Trance Freak]

Good day to everyone

It's been a while since my last post here, but I've been extremely busy with something else, something not concerning the English language.
Still, I need your help as regards the following sentence (CPE level task):

Put the verbs in brackets into the appropriate present tense:
He ... (study) most of the year, but now it's summer, he ... (work) in a shop.

The thing is there's only one key answer to this sentence. What I'd like to get is your take on the sentence. What tenses would be appropriate to use in your opinion? I'm going to give you the key answer later on.

Thanks for any response.

[bhaisahab]

Good day to everyone

It's been a while since my last post here, but I've been extremely busy with something else, something not concerning the English language.
Still, I need your help as regards the following sentence (CPE level task):

Put the verbs in brackets into the appropriate present tense:
He ... (study) most of the year, but now it's summer, he ... (work) in a shop.

The thing is there's only one key answer to this sentence. What I'd like to get is your take on the sentence. What tenses would be appropriate to use in your opinion? I'm going to give you the key answer later on.

Thanks for any response.

"Studies/is working".

[Kondorosi]

"Studies/is working".

Yes.

[engee30]

"Studies/is working".

Yes.

That's exactly what my first thought about the sentence was.
Great minds think alike.

However, the key answer is this:
He's been studying most of the year, but now it's summer, he's working in a shop.

I know it's perfect and this is what the author of the book with that task would expect to get from the students, but the trouble is there is one stubborn Polish English teacher who claims that the key answer is the only acceptable one. So I guess it's time he began to take things into consideration with a bit broader attitude, so to speak.

[omasta]

That's exactly what my first thought about the sentence was.
Great minds think alike.

However, the key answer is this:
He's been studying most of the year, but now it's summer, he's working in a shop.

I know it's perfect and this is what the author of the book with that task would expect to get from the students, but the trouble is there is one stubborn Polish English teacher who claims that the key answer is the only acceptable one. So I guess it's time he began to take things into consideration with a bit broader attitude, so to speak.

Hi!

The problem concerns the meaning of the noun year. If your teacher means the 'year' as the academic one which runs from October to July and ends at the start of the summer then the He's been studying is correct, otherwise the He studies is OK.

[Mehrgan]

I do know that a language is flexible...however, I think, when we have "but" in a sentence, two opposite aspects of the same idea are being introduced. In the second part we have some information about what he's doing this summer (not all summers),so the first part can't be a general fact about his habbits; so, it doesn't sound appropriate to use a "simple present" here. (that's, of course, the way I thought of after you gave us the 2nd choice.) Any other ideas?


not a teacher...

[omasta]

I do know that a language is flexible...however, I think, when we have "but" in a sentence, two opposite aspects of the same idea are being introduced. In the second part we have some information about what he's doing this summer (not all summers),so the first part can't be a general fact about his habbits; so, it doesn't sound appropriate to use a "simple present" here. (that's, of course, the way I thought of after you gave us the 2nd choice.) Any other ideas?


not a teacher...

Hi!

In the time clause He studies most of the year there is an idea of routine, so you can use the simple present tense here.

[Mehrgan]

Hi!

In the time clause He studies most of the year there is an idea of routine, so you can use the simple present tense here.

Hi dear,
Yes. It's quite all right for the clause to refer to a habit, but I thought of the idea of Parallel Structures, where, in this case, the first clause had better go the same way as the second one (not a habit), specially when it's in an exam, or your teacher sounds pretty rigid! Or maybe I'm wrong!

[omasta]

Hi dear,
Yes. It's quite all right for the clause to refer to a habit, but I thought of the idea of Parallel Structures, where, in this case, the first clause had better go the same way as the second one (not a habit), specially when it's in an exam, or your teacher sounds pretty rigid! Or maybe I'm wrong!

Hi!

Everything is OK. Both clauses are in present tenses.