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Zelena Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Present Perfect Continuous or Past Continuous?
Dear Native and Near Native Speakers,
I need your kind help again:
"Sixty metres away, on the bank of the mighty river that provides drinking water to the growing city of Banglamore, India, I spot a leopard: Two metres from head to tail, head bowed as it HAS BEEN DRINKING/WAS DRINKING. It looks up, turns round slowly and sees me."
The key suggests WAS DRINKING but why? All the other happenings are present tense in the text.
Thank you very much for the answers.
I need your kind help again:
"Sixty metres away, on the bank of the mighty river that provides drinking water to the growing city of Banglamore, India, I spot a leopard: Two metres from head to tail, head bowed as it HAS BEEN DRINKING/WAS DRINKING. It looks up, turns round slowly and sees me."
The key suggests WAS DRINKING but why? All the other happenings are present tense in the text.
Thank you very much for the answers.
Top answer
Zelena "Sixty metres away, on the bank of the mighty river that provides drinking water to the growing city of Banglamore, India, I spot a leopard: Two metres from head to tail, head bowed as it HAS BEEN DRINKING/WAS DRINKING. " Hi Zelena; The sequence of events in a narrative is relative to some "present moment" for the speaker. " The activity that the leopard was doing before that moment (drinking) was interrupted.
- Zelena "Sixty metres away, on the bank of the mighty river that provides drinking water to the growing city of Banglamore, India, I spot a leopard: Two metres from head to tail, head bowed as it HAS BEEN DRINKING/WAS DRINKING.
- " Hi Zelena; The sequence of events in a narrative is relative to some "present moment" for the speaker.
- " The activity that the leopard was doing before that moment (drinking) was interrupted.
- Since that activity is past, the verb is past.
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1 Answers
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Zelena"Sixty metres away, on the bank of the mighty river that provides drinking water to the growing city of Banglamore, India, I spot a leopard: Two metres from head to tail, head bowed as it HAS BEEN DRINKING/WAS DRINKING. It looks up, turns round slowly and sees me."Hi Zelena;
The sequence of events in a narrative is relative to some "present mo
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