| Author: Catherine | |
| Subject: Tenses for Imaginative Writing | |
| Category: tenses |
Dear teachers,
Please take a look at the following:
As part of the activities for Science and History Week in your school, you have been asked to write an essay discussing the following:
Modern equipment would have made life easier for Stone Age cavemen and cavewomen. Which three pieces of equipment do you think would have been most useful?
Write your essay.
(HKCEE 1995: Paper I, no. 3)
Am I correct to tell students that they have to use past tense when describing facts about cavemen/cavewomen; past perfect conditional for suggestions/imagination; and present tense for reasons?
Will the above tenses be too difficult for F.5 students?
In a book called Suggested Solutions for HKCEE Past Papers, the writer uses present tenses throughout the essay. Let me quote the first paragraph of the essay:
Everyone knows that life is hard, especially for some primitive people like cavemen. Why? They have to toil day and night to get food and shelters for their families. If they can share some modern equipment with us, it will be an unthinkably great help to them and lead to an unimaginable change to their lives.
Do you think we can use present tenses here?
Catherine
 | © 1996 - 2002 TELEC. All rights reserved. |