My mother (0) started school when she (1) __________ (be) six and (2) __________ (stop) the same term. She was unusual in the village as she had a father and brother who (3) __________ (encourage) her to go to school. She was the only girl in a class of boys and claims she was brighter than the boys. But every day she (4) __________ (will) leave behind her girl cousins (5) __________ (play) at home and she (6) __________ (envy) them. There (7) __________ (seem) to be no point in (8) __________ (go) to school just to end up doing housework.

(1) was (2) stopped (3) encouraged (4) would (5) playing (6) envied (7) seemed (8) going

HOW THE 4 MARKS ARE AWARDED: half a mark per blank, eight blanks, no partial credit within a blank.

The example gives "(0) started", so the passage is in the SIMPLE PAST. Five blanks follow that directly, but three do not: (4) would — the bracket word is WILL, and in past narrative it becomes WOULD. Note what it means here: "every day she WOULD leave behind her cousins" describes a REPEATED HABITUAL action in the past, not a future. "Would" for past habit is a construction worth knowing — compare "we would walk to school every morning". (5) playing — a present participle describing the cousins: "her girl cousins PLAYING at home". They were in the act of playing when she left them. (8) going — after the preposition IN, a verb takes the -ing form. "No point IN GOING", "no point in waiting", "no use in complaining".

Watch the SPELLING of (6): envy becomes ENVIED, with y changing to ied. The same rule governs carried, hurried, studied.

THE HABIT TO FORM: before writing a tense, check what the blank FOLLOWS. A preposition takes -ing; a modal takes the bare infinitive; "had" takes the past participle.