We (1) __________ (find) a dead mouse (2) __________ (lie) among our treasures. It (3) __________ (be) an exciting discovery. A boy took it up by its tail and (4) __________ (wave) it in front of our faces. "What shall we do with it?" he (5) __________ (cry). "It stinks!" someone (6) __________ (shout). "Throw it out of the window quick!" He (7) __________ (hesitate). They all (8) __________ (look) at me.

(1) found (2) lying (3) was (4) waved (5) cried (6) shouted (7) hesitated (8) were looking (or: looked)

HOW THE 4 MARKS ARE AWARDED: half a mark per blank, eight blanks. There is no partial credit within a blank — the form is either right or wrong.

THE GOVERNING RULE: find the tense of the passage first. Here "A boy TOOK it up" fixes it as SIMPLE PAST, and every blank must agree with that unless the grammar of the sentence forces otherwise.

Blank by blank: (1) found — simple past, matching "took". (2) lying — NOT "lay". The mouse was already in that position when they found it, so a present participle is needed to describe its state: "a dead mouse lying among our treasures". Note the spelling: lie becomes LYING, not "lieing". (3) was — singular subject "It". (4) waved — joined to "took" by "and", so the same tense. (5) cried — reporting verb in the past. Spelling: y becomes ied. (6) shouted — simple past. (7) hesitated — simple past. (8) were looking — the past continuous conveys that they were all watching him at that moment and waiting; "looked" is also accepted.

THE MARKS LOST MECHANICALLY: copying the whole passage instead of writing the answers in serial order (the instruction forbids it, and it wastes minutes), and spelling errors in the verb form — "lieing", "cryed", "shouted" misspelt all cost the blank.