I am a native English speaker who has just begun to tutor ESL students. I have found some exercise sheets on the internet and I disagree with some of the answers, I would appreciate some other opinions. The object of the exercises is to select which of the 2 verb tenses is correct.
- I ____ (drink) three cups of coffee this morning.
The answer given is "have drunk", but I believe it depends on when I am saying it. If it is already this afternoon, than "drank" is correct.
- Sorry, I ____ (miss) the bus, so I'm going to be late.
The answer given is "have missed", and this is fine, but I believe "missed" is also perfectly acceptable. Even though the consequences of the action are still palpable, the event itself is over.
To give an extreme example, "My great-great-grandfather blew up a mirror factory, so I still have 7736 years of bad luck coming". Although the consequences are still reverberating, it would be incorrect to use "has blown up".
- She ______ (play) hockey at school, but she ______ (not / like) it.
The answer given is "played / didn't like", which is fine. But wouldn't it also be grammatically acceptable to say "has played / hasn't liked"?
Furthermore, I feel it would also be fine to say "has played / didn't like". She has played several games, and may play more, so PP is fine for the first clause. Simple past for the second clause, because the games are over and she didn't enjoy it. Even if she plays more and enjoys future games, she still did not enjoy the first few games. If you claim that the "it" implies that there was only one game, I think that the "it" pronoun refers to the act of playing in games, not to the games themselves.
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