bruxinha
Member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2020
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Portuguese
- Home Country
- Portugal
- Current Location
- Germany
I came across the following text last week. It is from a worksheet on mixed sentences and the students have to decide which one fits best in the sentence. Sometimes there are signal words that show you which tense you should use (like yesterday, etc.), but in some of the sentences you have to decide according to the context.
Sorry, I can't provide a real source for this - the worksheet was given to me by a student who got it from his teacher last year. It is somewhere on the internet, not in a book.
The text is much longer, so I'll only write down the parts I need; if some reader needs more context, I can upload the rest. Here are the first sentences:
Mixed Tenses — Restaurant Edition
Task 1: “My first week as a waiter”. Fill in the correct tense form of the verb. Use present, past & future tenses.
My first week working as a waiter at a new Greek restaurant in my city ............. (be) quite eventful. After I ............. (get) the job at the interview, my first day ................. (be) a busy Saturday night.
The answer key is as follows (my bold):
My first week working as a waiter at a new Greek restaurant in my city has been (be) quite eventful. After I had got / gotten (get) the job at the interview, my first day was (be) a busy Saturday night.
I am wondering why the author of the text uses the present perfect in the first sentence. (My student's last teacher gave them the answer key as is and didn't accept other tenses there.) I mean, I can understand the use of present perfect if the speaker is still within this week - let's say, the job started on Saturday and now it's Thursday, so this first week isn't over yet. It has been quite eventful so far (and ist is still going on).
But there is no hint to the time when the speaker is talking about his/her first week. If he/she is already in the second month working there, the "first week" he/she is reporting about is already in the past and fully completed. Would the simple past be acceptable in this case?
Sorry, I can't provide a real source for this - the worksheet was given to me by a student who got it from his teacher last year. It is somewhere on the internet, not in a book.
The text is much longer, so I'll only write down the parts I need; if some reader needs more context, I can upload the rest. Here are the first sentences:
Mixed Tenses — Restaurant Edition
Task 1: “My first week as a waiter”. Fill in the correct tense form of the verb. Use present, past & future tenses.
My first week working as a waiter at a new Greek restaurant in my city ............. (be) quite eventful. After I ............. (get) the job at the interview, my first day ................. (be) a busy Saturday night.
The answer key is as follows (my bold):
My first week working as a waiter at a new Greek restaurant in my city has been (be) quite eventful. After I had got / gotten (get) the job at the interview, my first day was (be) a busy Saturday night.
I am wondering why the author of the text uses the present perfect in the first sentence. (My student's last teacher gave them the answer key as is and didn't accept other tenses there.) I mean, I can understand the use of present perfect if the speaker is still within this week - let's say, the job started on Saturday and now it's Thursday, so this first week isn't over yet. It has been quite eventful so far (and ist is still going on).
But there is no hint to the time when the speaker is talking about his/her first week. If he/she is already in the second month working there, the "first week" he/she is reporting about is already in the past and fully completed. Would the simple past be acceptable in this case?
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