Narrative tenses : news story

Gap-fill exercise

Fill the gaps with a suitable form of the verb in brackets. Most of these are past simple or past perfect, some are passive and a few are other tenses.

In Nigeria, a three-year-old British girl (reunite) with her parents after being freed by kidnappers in southern Nigeria who (hold) her for four days.
Margaret Hill's parents, Mike and Oluchi Hill, said she was in good health but "covered in mosquito bites".

The kidnappers (threaten) to kill the girl unless a ransom (pay) or Briton Mr Hill (take) her place. Mr Hill, an oil worker, (say) no ransom (pay). He told Sky News that his daughter (return) "in a little bit of a trance", but soon began coming back to life and talking to her mother. The child (hold) "in the bush... in some sort of hut", he said. "I don't think she had much to eat because she is hungry now."

Margaret (snatch) on Thursday morning when gunmen (smash) the window of a car driving her to school in Port Harcourt as it stood in traffic. The car's driver (stab) as he tried to protect the girl.

Her Nigerian mother, Oluchi Hill, later (say) the abductors (contact) her and (demand) an unspecified ransom for Margaret's release. The kidnappers (vow) to kill the girl unless her father, a British expatriate oil worker originally from Murton in County Durham, took her place.

Our correspondent says more than 200 hostages (take) by armed groups in the last 18 months in Nigeria, but none has ever been killed.

Resources page for narrative tenses

Notes on narrative tenses

Gap fill exercises

Narrative tenses - incident on a plane
Complete the anecdote about an incident on a plane by putting the verbs in the correct tense.

Narrative tenses exercise - James Bond
Narrative tenses gap-fill exercise based on a short passage from the James Bond story Diamonds are Forever.

Pakistan - China by bicycle
Personal account of a bike trip. Fifteen gaps. Past simple, past continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous.

Past simple and continuous - anecdote - the Donkey Dog
Short anecdote about a frightening experience, gapped for past continuous and past simple plus 'enormous' and 'the biggest'

Narrative tenses exercise: past perfect simple and continuous; past simple
Text about an engine failure during a flight. Advanced levels.

Present perfect, past simple and past continuous 01
Gapped dialogue. 'Have you ever...?' with a short anecdote as the reply using past simple and past continuous.

Present perfect, past simple and past continuous 02
Gapped dialogue. 'Have you ever...?' with a short anecdote as the reply using past simple and past continuous.

Quizzes - multiple choice / short answer

Narrative tenses quiz: a spooky experience
Ten-question multiple-choice quiz on narrative tenses based on a story about a strange experience in an old house.