Fill in each of the numbered blanks with the correct form of the word given in brackets. Do not copy the passage but write in correct serial order the word or phrase appropriate to the blank space. Example: By the time she was three, Matilda had (0) __________ (teach) herself to read. Answer: (0) taught
By the time she was three, Matilda had (0) taught herself to read by (1) __________ (study) newspapers and magazines that (2) __________ (lie) around the house. At the age of four, she could (3) __________ (read) fast and well and she naturally began (4) __________ (hanker) after books. The only book in the whole of this enlightened household was something called Easy Cooking (5) __________ (belong) to her mother, and when she had read this from cover to cover and had (6) __________ (learn) all the recipes by heart, she (7) __________ (decide) that she (8) __________ (want) something more interesting.
Topic: Tenses — correct form of the verb
Answer
(1) studying (2) lay (3) read (4) hankering (5) belonging (6) learnt (7) decided (8) wanted
HOW THE 4 MARKS ARE AWARDED: half a mark per blank, eight blanks, no partial credit within a blank.
This passage is unusually varied — only three of the eight blanks are simple tense questions. Work through the GRAMMAR of each: (1) studying — after the preposition BY, a verb takes the -ing form. "By studying", "by reading", "by asking". (2) lay — the past of LIE (to rest in a position). This is the hardest blank in the paper, because two verbs collide: lie — lay — lain (to recline; no object) lay — laid — laid (to place something; takes an object) The magazines were resting on furniture, so the verb is LIE and its past is LAY. Writing "laid" is the standard error. (3) read — after the modal COULD, the bare infinitive is used. The spelling is unchanged. (4) hankering — "began" is followed by either the infinitive or the -ing form; hankering reads more naturally. (5) belonging — a participle describing the book: "a book BELONGING to her mother". Note that "belong" has no continuous form of its own (never "was belonging"), but the participle is correct here. (6) learnt — past participle after "had". Both LEARNT and LEARNED are correct; learnt is the usual British form. (7) decided and (8) wanted — simple past, matching the narrative.
THE LESSON: check what each blank FOLLOWS — a preposition takes -ing, a modal takes the bare infinitive, "had" takes the past participle.