TENSE REVIEW TEST

I’m a university student, I 1. (study) a tourism degree at the moment, I’m in my final year. I 2. (finish) my degree by this coming August. I’m confident I’ll pass as I only have my dissertation left to do now. After I graduate I 3. (study) a Masters degree overseas, so by this time next year, I 4. (live) in a different country.

Yes I do, the course is very interesting and I 5. (make) some really good friends at university. The lecturers are pretty helpful and we’ve learned a lot from them. I think it was a good course to choose as there are lots of opportunities in the tourism industry and also lots of opportunities to work overseas for qualified and experienced people.

Yes I do, but I don’t usually see them very often. My parents and I 6. (move) to another town when I was five, but I see them during holidays sometimes and 7. (talk) to them on the telephone almost every week. I 8. (write) to them too – my grandmother loves receiving letters and postcards. They are such kind people and give the family lots of support. They have a wedding anniversary coming soon; they 9. (be) married for 50 years by next July so we 10. (have) a big family party to celebrate. I have quite a few cousins so they have a lot of grandchildren; we are a pretty big family.

Oh yes  – I 11. (used / stay) with them every summer holiday when I was a child. It was a lot of fun as they live in the country side and they used to have a lot of animals though they don’t have many now. I went horse riding almost every day when I 12. (stay) with them. I 13. (never/ride) a horse before my grandfather taught me one summer. We also did a lot of fishing – most of our time we 14. (spend) outdoors actually, if the weather 15. (be) good enough.

The best holiday I have ever had was when I 16. (go) to Italy. I went there 5 years ago and stayed for three weeks. I 17. (never/travel) abroad before that holiday so I 18. (be) very excited. I went there with my parents and my aunt, uncle and cousins 19. (come) too. We went swimming most days and we also went fishing. For most of the holiday we sunbathed on the beach.

The sun 20. (shine) every day and we 21. (enjoy) the warm weather; we were very happy. One day, when my cousins and I 22. (lie) on the beach we started talking to some local Italian teenagers. It was difficult to communicate, as at that time none of us 23. (learn) English for very long, but it was the only language we all had at least a little bit in common. Even now I 24. (write) letters to one of the Italians quite often; it 25. (give) us both a chance to practise our English. He 26. (start) a university course next spring.

During the holiday we also went sightseeing with our parents. Italy has some amazing historical places and we 27. (spend) a few days in Rome. We saw the Colosseum and walked around the Vatican City. I saw St Peter’s, which is just amazing – I 28. (never/see) anything like it before!

Anyway, I really enjoyed the holiday for a few reasons. It was wonderful to spend time with my cousins as even now they still 29. (live) in a different town from me, about 6 hours away by car, and I 30. (never/have)many opportunities to see them very often. It was also the first time I had been abroad with my parents so I have special memories of our time in Italy and of course I enjoyed it because it was just so much fun.

Hmmm….that’s an interesting question …Yes I think on the whole tourism brings advantages to a country, because it 31. (help) the economy of the country and 32. (provide) job opportunities for local people. Some countries, like Thailand for example, rely on tourism as a major part of their economy. It’s important though that a country 33. (maintain) its true identity and 34. (not change) too much or lose too many traditions because of the effect of tourism.

I suppose there are some disadvantages too, maybe some places can become too commercialised because of tourism and sometimes houses can become too expensive for local people to buy if people from outside come in a buy up all the property. That 35. (happen) in my home town over the last few years as it is a popular tourist spot and people from the bigger cities 36. (start) to buy holiday homes there.

Yes definitely, we 37. (learn) so much from visiting other countries and discovering their culture. I 38. (think) every culture has something to teach people from other places because views on food, health, religion, customs and so many other things vary so much from place to place. A good example is Eastern medicine; traditional practices from Asia are being used more and more in Western society now.

Yes I think the way we spend our free time 39. (definitely/change) over the last decade. International travel 40. (become) much more common and accessible to more people over the last 10 years. We can get some really good bargains on flights now and a lot of people 41. (take) international holidays. Technology 42. (have) an impact on how we entertain ourselves too. There are so many computer games and things to do on the internet. I spend a lot of time using chat rooms as I can meet people from all over the world and practice my English; I 43. (believe) a lot of young people do the same thing. Technology changes so quickly too, it is hard to imagine what we 44. (do) for entertainment in another 10 years.

I think that sports clubs should be promoted more. After all, they are a fun way of keeping fit and being a member of a sports club is a good way of meeting people with similar interests. I 45. (play) tennis at my local sports club quite regularly and I 46. (make) a lot of interesting friends there, we often 47. (socialise) together. Maybe the benefits of sports clubs could be promoted more through a TV advertisement campaign sponsored by the Government; it’s in the country’s best interests anyway if the population is healthier.

No not really, a lot of children are busy with homework and studying for exams. I think that it’s important for children to enjoy their free time too because they 48. (have) many more responsibilities when they grow up and get a full-time job or have a family. We learn lots of important lessons about life when we are young through playing with our friends. We learn about how to build relationships outside of our immediate family and how to get along with others. I think children should be encouraged to take part in some kind of regular physical activity though; swimming or football something like that. Until quite recently I 49. (help) to run an evening sports club at the local primary school; I think the club has really stimulated an interest in sports in some of the children who were not really very keen before. I really enjoyed working with children and I hope to help out again once my examinations are over. I think that based on its popularity so far the club 50. (attract) more and more children in the future.