Modal Verbs and Tense Practice Exercises

Modal Verb Practice

3. The baby is crying now. We shouldn’t have made / should have made / should make so much noise.

4. The book isn’t in my bag. I could leave / must leave / must have left it at your house.

5. You could try / are able to try / would have tried wearing glasses. Your vision isn’t great.

6. Look at the sky! It might rain / might have rained / could have rained.

Textos: Verb Tense Application

Passage 1: Health and Diet

For years, doctors (1) have told (tell) young people to stop eating fast food. Scientists (2) discovered (discover) a long time ago that fast food contains too much fat and salt. Because of that, schools everywhere (3) have recently changed (recently change) their lunch menus to make them healthier. But for UK teenager Ashley Clarke, it’s a different story. Ashley (4) had been fainting (faint) several times a day for years before doctors discovered that he had a rare medical condition. What was the solution to Ashley’s problem? To his amazement, doctors (5) prescribed (prescribe) a diet of junk food! They (6) told (tell) Ashley that he needed the extra salt in food like hamburgers and crisps to keep his blood pressure up. Before this recommendation, Ashley (7) had been (be) on a healthy, nutritious diet. But ever since then, he (8) has been enjoying (enjoy) the food the rest of us are told not to eat!

Passage 2: Better World Books Initiative

Thanks to an online bookshop called Better World Books, thousands of people (1) have been given (give) the chance to help the world while enjoying a good read. Better World Books is a business whose profits (2) are being used (use) to help society. When the company first (3) began (begin), the founders (4) had (have) the idea of selling second-hand books online. They decided that the money from the book sales (5) would be donated (donate) to reading programmes all over the world.

Key Achievements:

• More than ten million books (6) have been collected (collect).
• More than $4 million (7) has been raised (raise) for programmes like Books for Africa and the Prison Book Programme.

Some of the books on the Better World site (8) have been received (receive) from libraries that have too many copies of the same book. Some books (9) were given (give) to Better World Books by retail bookshops that don’t want to cause pollution by throwing away unwanted books. The end result is the same: if you buy a book from Better World Books, your money (10) will make (make) a difference in the world.