GRAMMAR PRACTICE

1. Fill in the blanks with the past tense, present perfect or past perfect of the verb in parentheses.

Clifford Theroux is a portrait painter. Before he was three he (paint) ___________his first self portrait. It_______________ (Show) him after he_________________ (eat) a bowl of spaghetti.
By age ten he___________________ (do) 200 self portraits. His parents proudly__________________ (display) all of them. By the
time he left home to study art in New York, they___________________ (Cover) all the walls of their house with his portraits.
In recent years Clifford__________________ (continue) to paint
only self portraits.
Last month he ___________ (put) up a show, and since
then he __________________ (sell) five paintings. His parents _____________ (Buy) all five of the paintings to hang on the
walls of a room they ______________________ (add) onto their house.
People like Clifford's style of painting, and he _____________
(receive) several requests from people who want their portraits
painted. He ____________________ (refuse) them, because Clifford only paints portraits of himself.

2. Complete the sentences with Information about yourself.
a. Before I was three, I had ____________________________
b. By the time I was ten, I had ____________________________
c. Recently, I have _____________________________

3. Do a survey of the class. Choose one of the following activities and ask questions to see when, if ever, students did it. See the example:
Example: Had you learned to swim before you were five?

WHEN
ACTIVITY: Before the Before the Between the age Never
age of five age of 10 of ten and now

learn to swim
write a poem
cateto a fish
ride a bike
leam to multiply and divide
drink coffee
balee a cake
run a race
drive a car
art down a tree

4. Write sentences based on the survey. See the example
Example: Five students had learned to swim before they were five.