1) Past Simple or Past Perfect? Type in the correct form of the words in brackets.

Immigrants in Ellis Island, NY, c.1920.

a) Mark [?] (just, leave) the office when I called -I [?] (not reach) him.

b) Before she [?] (come) to America, Jin Yeo [?] (never, see) a supermarket.

c) Sally [?] (not eat) a thing in two days. She was happy when she [?] (find) the sandwich in the bin.

d) Tim [?] (never, like) immigrants coming to his country. But things [?] (start to look) different when he met Ülüsü.

e) [?] (you, ever, travel) abroad before you [?] (emigrate) ?

f) Poverty [?] (always, be) a major problem in Sudan. The drought [?] (make) things even worse.

g) [?] (she, ever, work) in a sweatshop before?



2) Complete the story. Use the correct forms of the verbs in brackets.

A refugee camp in Afghanistan, 2011.

Khaled [?] (feel) cold; he [?] (shiver) violently. With his family, he [?] (leave) the village in the mountains, what? Two months ago? Four? Khaled [?] (not know) anymore. Days [?] (just melt) into each other on the road, and now, in this camp, there [?] (be) precious little change to that. Originally, the plan [?] (be) to seek out his uncle, Hamid, in the big city. But the terror and the war [?] (reach) Kabul before the boy and his family even [?] (leave) the village. It [?] (be) only the news that [?] (take) longer.
"Come into the tent, Khaled!" his mother [?] (call) from within, her voice, for once, not muffled by the burka she had to wear whenever she [?] (go out). Khaled [?] (not like) the burka. Back home, his mother [?] (never, wear) it since the taliban [?] (leave). In the camp, however, it [?] (be) safer to wear it. Khaled's father [?] (say) so.

Taliban fighters, c. 2000.

The tea [?] (warm) Khaled a bit. A bit, but not enough. Never enough. It [?] (be) weeks since the last time he [?] (eat) his fill, and two days since the last tree in the camp's vicinity [?] (be) cut down for firewood -the last few sticks [?] (heat) the water for this tea.
"When is Father coming back?" he [?] (ask), as he so often [?] (do) these days. His old man [?] (go) to Kabul a while before, to see if he [?] (can) find a way for his family to move on to Pakistan, and then to the land of their dreams: Australia. He [?] (want to) talk to Hazrat, a friend of Uncle Hamid's who [?] (be) there when the car bomb [?] (blow) Hamid to pieces.
"Tomorrow, insh'allah," she [?] (say).
"Insh'allah, [?] (say) Khaled, automatically. Then, "But if He doesn't want it? If Father doesn't come back?"
"Don't speak of it!" Mother's voice [?] (be) sharp, but her eyes [?] (be) pleading. Then, softer, "Finish your tea, son, and then see if you can find some wood, can you?"
Khaled [?] (nod). Later, he [?] (go) for firewood. But his eyes never [?] (leave) the trail to Kabul. The empty trail to Kabul.