all tenses mixed, in one exercise...

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Hello there!

I've just completed an exercise from a book called "A Proficiency Course In English" (Bywater) concerning tenses, and I have some questions about it. Could you give me your explanations? (since the key doesn't say anything apart from giving the answer only)

1. I wonder who is making / was making that dreadful row. - are both versions possible? the second one seems a bit odd, especially out of context... to me...

2. After he had eaten an enormous dinner, he fell asleep and was dreaming peacefully when a lump of coal fell on to the heart and woke him up. - Could you please tell me, why there is past perfect used? Is it necessary here? Could I use simple past?

3. I had been living / lived in that flat for several years before I decided / had decided to look round for something more central. - Wchich version is correct? Could I simply use the simple past tense here? We have words like "before" don't we? So is present perfect necessary (especially in the second part) ?

4. I shall / will have finished the book in about twenty minutes' time; can;t you wait until then? - The key gives "shall" and I don't know whether "will" and "shall" differ in any way... do they? Besides, I wanna know whether I could simply say "I will finish the book in about 20 minutes..." and if not, why???

5. The Incas were beaten in battle by the Spanish conquistadores and, after being held / were held / they had been held in captivity for some time, their Emperor was murdered. - The key says "had been held" and I have no idea why... couldn't I simply say "were held" ? or "being held" ? why not?

6. Have you seen my glasses? - Can I say "Did you see my glasses" ? why/why not?

7. When I arrived on the field yesterday, preparations were / had been in the full swing for the Fair which opens today... - again, sp vs p. perf. - The key says "were" and I would say "had been" ... is it wrong to use the past perfect here? what would it take to use it? adding a word like "already" maybe?

8. I met your sister yesterday and I think / thought she was looking very well / she looks very well. - Can I use simple present? If I mean that she looks fine, like... kind of... generally! And does "thought" imply that I thought that in the past and I don't think that anymore? or does it mean more like "generally" ? Could I use "I think..." here? why not?

9. Tolstoy tried / had been trying / had tried to educate his serfs but after he had been working / working / having been working at it for 20 years he got discouraged and gave it up. - Here, I'm completely confused... The key says "tried" and "had been working" ... dunno why... and why the rest is wrong...

All the best to you guys! I'm counting on you Thanks in advance!

PS. Is that true that if a Brit guy comes to the USA and uses a/the word "fortnight" he may not be understood?

[Diverhank]

You have a lot of questions...I haven't much time now so I'll come back with more answers later .
#1 I think should be "was making" unless the act is happening right now, which is unlikely. You usually wonder about what had happened in the past.
#2 "had eaten" is more correct since the past perfect tense is used to describe something that happened before another event (also in the past). He had fallen asleep before he fell asleep. You seem to have problems with this concept . If you use nothing but past tense then it may get confusing at times. Use past perfect to differentiate sequence of events.
#3 In my opinion, it should be past perfect then past.

[Diverhank]

To continue on,
#4...I'm not sure if there's any difference between shall and will in this case...shall sounds more like King's English, maybe. In my opinion, you can use "I will finish..." but grammatically, the key is right because technically you could not have known for certain that you will finish it in 20 minutes...by using "shall have finished", it gives the possibility that you could be wrong...however, I think many modern writers are moving away from heavy handed sentences like "shall have finished". I won't hesitate to use "I will finish", but then I'm not a teacher of English .

#5...again past perfect is used to describe something that happened before another past event (had been held before king was murdered)

#6...When you say "did you see my glasses", it begs the question of when? and how many times? By using "have you seen...", it covers all events.
#7...Both events (arrived and in full swing) happened at the same time. "had been" would be OK like you said with a "already"

[Mister Micawber]

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My opinions:

1. I wonder who is making / was making that dreadful row. - 'is' for the current event, 'was' for the past event; both are possible here.

2. After he had eaten an enormous dinner, he fell asleep and was dreaming peacefully when a lump of coal fell on to the heart and woke him up. - Past perfect is unnecessary where the sequence of events is evident; it is made clear here by the word 'after', so simple past is fine.

3. I had been living / lived in that flat for several years before I decided / had decided to look round for something more central. - As above. Simple past is perfectly adequate unless surrounding context causes confusion about event sequence.

4. I shall / will have finished the book in about twenty minutes' time; can;t you wait until then? - In AmE, 'shall' and 'will' are interchangeable here, but 'shall' is seldom used; it is considered overly formal. You can say 'I will finish' if you like; the tense used here merely throws the speaker and listener's perspective into the future event to follow.

5. The Incas were beaten in battle by the Spanish conquistadores and, after being held / were held / they had been held in captivity for some time, their Emperor was murdered. - 'Were held' does not fit the grammar of the sentence as you have presented it. 'Being held' would have an ambiguous subject.

6. Have you seen my glasses? - Can I say "Did you see my glasses" ? why/why not? -- Both fine and common as used here. The simple past is more usual in AmE.

7. When I arrived on the field yesterday, preparations were / had been in the full swing for the Fair which opens today... - Past perfect is wrong here; preparations were still going on at the time of arrival.

8. I met your sister yesterday and I think / thought she was looking very well / she looks very well. - Yes, you can use present if the conditions still obtain.

9. Tolstoy tried / had been trying / had tried to educate his serfs but after he had been working / working / having been working at it for 20 years he got discouraged and gave it up. - As before: with 'after', the sequence of events is clear and simple past could have been used. Many writers use past perfect just to stress the temporal distance between the events.

PS. Is that true that if a Brit guy comes to the USA and uses a/the word "fortnight" he may not be understood? -- I understand and am AmE. As a child, I attended a school club in Illinois held once in two weeks and called 'Fortnightly'.
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_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
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