Question on the article 'the' using the narrative tenses

learning54 said:

Hi teachers,

This is just part of story.
A dog’s barking somewhere in the distance. Is it a police dog perhaps? The man in the field doesn’t know. There is only one idea in his mind at the moment: he must find food and some warm clothes, but where?

The students have read it and then they have these directions:

Now using the narrative tenses rewrite Episode 3 on page 14. For detailed rules go to page 2 inthe Student Writing Support.

This is how the text should look:
A dog was barking somewhere in the distance. Was it a policedog perhaps? The man in the field didn’t know. There was only one idea in his mind at that moment: he had to find food and some warm clothes, but where?

My question is on the article ‘the’. Should I change it to ‘that’ because there’s the word ‘moment’ after it, or I should just leave it the way it is with 'the'?

Thanks in advance.

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bhaisahab said:

"A dog was barking somewhere in the distance. Was it a police dog perhaps? The man in the field didn’t know. There was only one idea in his mind at that moment: he had to find food and some warm clothes, but where?" This is correct, "the" would be wrong.

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learning54 said:

Now using the narrative tenses rewrite Episode 3 on page 14. For detailed rules go to page 2 inthe Student Writing Support.

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learning54 said:

Hi,
Thank you so much for your reply. Is it just because of the word 'moment' after it that I should change it?

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emsr2d2 said:

Not specifically the use of the word "moment". In the present tense, we would use "at the moment", "at the time", "on the day" etc. If you move those into the narrative (past simple), they become "at that moment", "at that time", "on that day" etc.

EDIT: Actually, now that I think about it "On the day" could remain the same in the narrative.

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BobSmith said:

[AmE - not a teacher]

Personally, I would include commas here:

[Strike]Now[/Strike] Using the narrative tenses, rewrite Episode 3 on page 14. For detailed rules, go to page 2 in <space> the Student Writing Support.

Perhaps some teacher can correct me if this is wrong.

Also, "in the Student Writing Support" sounds odd to me. Student Writing Support what, web site? Workbook? Powerpoint? If that is the literal title, then I think I would leave off the article: "For detailed rules, go to page 2 in Student Writing Support."

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learning54 said:

Hi,
To me Bob's suggestion sounds very fine, but could a teacher confirm it please?

L54

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bhaisahab said:

I would punctuate your original sentences like this:
Now, using the narrative tenses, rewrite Episode 3 on page 14. For detailed rules, go to page 2 in the Student Writing Support.
If you delete "now", as he suggested, I agree with his punctuation.

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