Hi guys, I’m an international student and some English grammar questions on Khan Academy (shift in mood, verb, tense section) have been posing me problems.
Question 1:
Before they could see the parade, the visitors (will have heard) the marching band.
a) NO CHANGE
b) Will be Hearing
c) Heard
d) Were hearing
Question 2:
When architect Ayla-Suzan Yondel and artist Tomi Ungerer collaborated to design a children’s school, the finished result was both functional and playful. Kindergarten Die Katze, in the Shape of a giant cat, (houses) classrooms, coatrooms, a dining hall, and a kitchen.
a) NO CHANGE
b) is housing
c) will have housed
d) had housed
In Question 1:
I didn’t know what to choose. Aren’t you supposed to use present prefect as it is an action that happened before a second action in the past?
In Question 2:
I chose answer D, I was wrong. Correction says “answer A correct because the present tense “houses” is consistent to the other verbs in the previous sentence.” How is it consistent? I saw only “The two architects collaboratED” so I relied on that for my answer.
OP,
For question two, you need to recognize that “house” is a verb here, not a noun (though I admit this is one strange sentence on first read because “houses” looks like a noun, just like the nouns that come after it. My guess is that is part of the reason the question confuses students; it requires one to recognize “house” as a verb!). “No change” is correct because Kindergarten Die Katze (it is assumed) still exists. Thus, it may have been designed and constructed in the past, but because it is still standing, it (currently) houses classrooms, coatrooms, etc. Does this make sense?
Question one is testing students’ knowledge of when to use the future perfect tense (not the present perfect). If you need to understand why, just Google “future perfect.” It’s a bit thorny (complicated) to explain here.
BTW, these exams for international students (like the TOEFL) are a bit goofy. For one, learners of English have a much better knowledge of English grammar than we native speakers do. Few native English speakers can list all twelve (I think it’s twelve?!) verb tenses, but learners of English can.