Present Perfect x Simple Past (http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/answers.php?quiz_)

[Fatima Garcia]

Please, how can I grammarly justify the answers #:

Q21, Q22, Q23, Q27, Q38, Q50

Thank so much for your help!

Fatima Garcia

[5jj]

Welcome to the forum, Fatima.

Unfortunately, the URL you provided did not work. Could you try copying and pasting individual questions - like this:
Q1 - He ..... there when he was a child

has lived
lived

Tell us which answer you gave.

[Fatima Garcia]

Hi, please how can we grammarly justify the answers below:

Q21 - I've known her since we ......... at school together
were
have been
Q22 - It's ages since we ........
spoke
have spoken
Q23 - It's been ages since we ........ from Dave
have heard
heard
Q27 - I ........ just Meg and Brian at the party
have seen
saw
Q38 - I ....... a taxi so I came on the bus
haven't found
didn't find
Q50 - I ...... the dog for a walk because it was raining
haven't taken
didn't take



Thank you so much in advance!!!

[5jj]

Let's start with the easy ones:

Q38 - I ....... a taxi so I came on the bus
haven't found /didn't find

'I came on the bus' locates the not-finding clearly in the past. It's 'didn't find'.

Q50 - I ...... the dog for a walk because it was raining
haven't taken/didn't take

It's natural to associate the not-taking with the reason - the past raining. It's ' didn't take'.

[5jj]

These three are not so clear.

Q21 - I've known her since we were at school together.
Q22 - It's ages since we spoke.
Q23 - It's been ages since we heard from Dave.

The underlined situation is in the past, and so past-tense verbs are what we'd expect. They are correct.

Q22: However, perhaps unconsciously thinking, "This is the first time we have spoken for ages", the speaker may say, "It's (been) ages since we have spoken".
Q23: Similarly, the speaker may say, "It's (been) ages since we've heard from Dave".

[emsr2d2]

Q27 doesn't have a correct answer because the construction of the question is incorrect. Unless "just" is being (wrongly) used to mean "only", then regardless of which answer you insert, the sentence doesn't make sense. However, annoyingly, if you change the construction of the sentence, you get two possible questions and two possible answers.

Try it like this instead:

I just .............. Meg and Brian at the party.
Saw / Have seen

I ....... just ....... Meg and Brian at the party.
Saw / Have seen