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Rescue .... or Revenge 2/2
In the preceding part, we have left Adams, a suicidal man, and Steve, a policeman who's trying to reason him, at the top of a very high building. Adams has let Steve approach him, as if he had always known him ... Will the policeman manage to save the despaired man ?
Remember, the tense of narration is still the simple past .
ex : Adams wanted to end his life in front of a huge crowd, the radios and TVs of the country reporting the event.
* As usual, if two simultaneous past actions happened at the same time, then :
the long (and important one) is in the -ing preterite and the short action interrupting it , is in the simple past.
ex: While Adams was leaning against the wall, the policeman got out onto the ledge.
* If a past action happened before an action in the simple past, it must be in the past perfect simple (or in the past perfect in -ing if we want to insist on the duration of the action ) :
had + verb in the past participle or had + been + verb + ing
ex: For more than an hour, detectives had been trying to convince Adams that nothing could justify killing himself.
. * If you have to use the simple future, remember that it doesn't get on well with the past ...Rather use the 'conditional' => would + verb
* If you need to use a modal auxiliary : can => could and may=> might and must => have to
ex: Being careful, the policeman could save the man on the ledge.
* or modal forms : As if/ as though + modal pasts (indicating what's unreal, what doesn't exist in the present reality and is imagined.)
ex : Adams was looking as if he had already made the decision to die.
* Some easy constructions will be very useful to you :
- to let somebody do something => Remember that to let is followed by the infinitive without to.
ex : Adams didn' t let the rescuers convince him to go down, yet !
- In interrogative constructions introduced by WHY followed by an infinitive, TO is omitted. WHY DO IT ?
ex : Why go on living when life is so hard ?
This story was freely adapted from a short-story by Daniel Honig : Man with a problem.
Well ! Now, you should be ready to confront the test successfully ! Good luck !
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