Fill in the blanks with an appropriate tense form.

Exercise 1

The Supreme Court on December 10 …………………….. (directed / has directed / had directed) educational institutions to adopt a zero tolerance policy to ragging and …………………….. (expel / expelling / expelled) students ……………………… (find / found / finding) guilty of maltreating freshers. The apex court ……………………… (has said / said / has said) expulsion of offenders should be the minimum punishment as it was necessary to end the menace that ……………………. (could / should / must) lead to extreme torture and harassment, and sometimes even loss of life.

Answers

The Supreme Court on December 10 directed educational institutions to adopt a zero tolerance policy to ragging and expel students found guilty of maltreating freshers. The apex court said expulsion of offenders should be the minimum punishment as it was necessary to end the menace that could lead to extreme torture and harassment, and sometimes even loss of life.

Exercise 2

Nasa says its robot rover Spirit …………………….. (discovered / has discovered / had discovered) a patch of ground that ……………………… (show / shows / had showed) evidence of a past environment that ……………………… (would be / would have been / had been) perfect for microbial life. The deposits were probably ……………………… (produced / produces / producing) when hot spring water or steam came into contact with volcanic rocks. On earth these are the locations that ………………………… (tend / tends / tended) to teem with bacteria, said Nasa scientists.

Answers

Nasa says its robot rover Spirit has discovered a patch of ground that shows evidence of a past environment that would have been perfect for microbial life. The deposits were probably produced when hot spring water or steam came into contact with volcanic rocks. On earth these are the locations that tend to teem with bacteria, said Nasa scientists.

Exercise 3

Fill in the blanks using an appropriate tense form.

Storms ………………. (are developing / develop / have developed) over tropical waters in different parts of the world. For a hurricane to …………………….. (organize / get organized / be organizing), ‘conditions have to be just right’. First, the ocean water ……………………. (needs / is needing / need / needed) to be warm enough so that the winds can take up water through evaporation. As water vapour ………………….. (rising / is rising / rises / rise), it cools and turns back into liquid. This process ……………………. (release / releases / is releasing / has released) heat and it drives the formation of a hurricane.

If wind speeds inside the swirling mass ……………………. (reach / reaches / is reaching / reached) 40 miles per hour, the system …………………. (classified / is classified / classifies) as a ‘tropical storm’, and it gets a name. At 75 miles per hour, it ………………… (becomes / has become / became / had become) a hurricane. On average, 60 or 70 storms …………………. (form / are forming / formed) off Africa every year. About 10 of them get names and are capable of wrecking havoc.

Answers

Storms develop over tropical waters in different parts of the world. For a hurricane to get organized, ‘conditions have to be just right’. First, the ocean water needs to be warm enough so that the winds can take up water through evaporation. As water vapour rises, it cools and turns back into liquid. This process releases heat and it drives the formation of a hurricane.

If wind speeds inside the swirling mass reach 40 miles per hour, the system is classified as a ‘tropical storm’, and it gets a name. At 75 miles per hour, it becomes a hurricane. On average, 60 or 70 storms form off Africa every year. About 10 of them get names and are capable of wrecking havoc.