Exercises

66.1 Complete the answers to the questions.

1. Did anybody go out?

I don't know. I didn't see _anybody go out._

2. Has Jill arrived yet?

Yes, I think I heard her ---

3. How do you know I took the money?

I know because I saw you ---

4. Did the doorbell ring?

I'm not sure. I didn't hear ---

5. Can Tom play the piano?

I've never heard ---

6. Did I lock the door when I went out?

Yes, you did. I saw ---

7. How did the woman fall in the river?

I don't know. I didn't see ---

66.2 In each of these situations you and a friend saw, heard or smelt something. Look at the pictures and complete the sentences.

1. Look! There's Ann.

2. Look! There's Dave and Helen.

3. Look! There's Clare.

4. Listen That's Bill.

5. Can you smell burning? Yes! It's the dinner.

6. Look! There's Linda.

1. _We saw Ann waiting for a bus._

2. We saw Dave and Helen ---

3. We saw --- in a restaurant.

4. We heard ---

5. We could ---

6. ---

66.3 Complete these sentences. Use one of these verbs (in the correct form):

climb come crawl cry cycle explode happen open run say slam sleep tell

.1 Listen to the birds _singing._

2. I didn't hear you _come_ in.

3. Did anybody see the accident ---?

4. We listened to the old man --- his story from beginning to end.

5. Listen! Can you hear a baby ---?

6. I looked out of the window and saw Tim on his bike ---. along the road.

7. 'Why did you turn round suddenly? ' 'I thought I heard somebody --- my name.'

8. We watched the two men --- across the garden --- a window and --- through it into the house.

9. Everybody heard the bomb ---. It was a tremendous noise.

10. Oh! I can feel something --- up my leg! It must be an insect.

11. I heard somebody --- the door in the middle of the night. It woke me up.

12. When we got home, we found a cat --- on the kitchen table.

UNIT 67. ~ing clauses (Feeling tired, I went to bed early.)

A. A clause is a part of a sentence. Some sentences have two or more clauses:

* Jim hurt his arm (main clause) playing tennis.(~ing clause)

* Feeling tired, (~ing clause) I went to bed early.(main clause)

'Playing tennis' and 'feeling tired' are ~ing clauses.

If the ~ing clause is first (as in the second example), we write a comma (,) between the clauses.

B. When two things happen at the same time, you can use ~ing for one of the verbs. The main clause usually comes first:

* I've just seen Carol. She's in the bar having a drink. (= she is in the bar and she is having a drink)

* A man ran out of the house shouting. (= he ran out of the house and he was shouting)

* Do something! Don't just stand there doing nothing!

We also use ~ing when one action happens during another action. We use ~ing for the longer action. The longer action is the second part of the sentence:

* Jim hurt his arm playing tennis. (= while he was playing)

* Did you cut yourself shaving? (= while you were shaving)

You can also use ~ing after while or when:

* Jim hurt his arm while playing tennis.

* Be careful when crossing the road. (= when you are crossing)

C. When one action happens before another action, we use having (done) for the first action:

* Having found a hotel, we looked for somewhere to have dinner.

* Having finished her work, she went home.

You can also say after ~ing:

* After finishing her work, she went home.

If one short action follows another short action, you can use the simple ~ing form (doing instead of having done) for the first action:

* Taking a key out of his pocket, he opened the door.

These structures are used more in written English than in spoken English.

D. You can use an ~ing clause to explain something or to say why somebody does something. The~ing clause usually comes first:

* Feeling tired, I went to bed early. (= because I felt tired)

* Being unemployed, he hasn't got much money. (= because he is unemployed)

* Not having a car, she finds it difficult to get around. (= because she doesn't have a car)

* Having already seen the film twice, I didn't want to go to the cinema. (= because I had already seen it twice)

These structures are used more in written English than in spoken English.