Tense

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Anonymous  #125844  Thu, 11 Aug 05 02:47 AM

"The majority of shoplifters seem to be youngsters, middle-aged or even elderly people who, in a moment of confusion,
 .................... (slip) something into their bags and ..................... (forget) to pay for it.  Some stores are in fact doing their best to separate the real thieves from those who have no intention of stealing."

Please advise the correct form of tenses to be used based on the words in brackets.  If students come up with the following answers, which is correct?

(a)   slip, forget

(b)   slipped, forgot

(c)   would slip, would forget

  
Clive  #125862  Thu, 11 Aug 05 04:09 AM

Hi,

Well, I'd choose (a) because the paragraph is a statement of 'present facts', and a definition.

However, if a student chose (b), I'd hesitate to say that was wrong. The thinking would be that 'he is now a shoplifter because this is what he did'.

Even (c) would do, but seems rather less common.

Best wishes, Clive

  
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Clive  #125864  Thu, 11 Aug 05 04:20 AM

I see now that this question was already posted (and answered) in another thread (by Baggylot).

What happened, did a teacher assign this as homework to a class?

Clive

  
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