Tense Agreement in Time Clauses

1. While the volunteers ---- water samples from the lower stretch of the river, a sudden rise in the water level forced them to abandon the site.

Modals Verbs of Ability & Possibility

2. The dispatches were being delivered to an abandoned consulate throughout that autumn, so the ambassador ---- what his government had decided; not a single one of the papers ever reached his desk.

Tense Agreement in Time Clauses

3. No sooner ---- their preliminary assessment of the fault line than the provincial authorities ordered the evacuation of three nearby villages.

Modals Verbs of Ability & Possibility

4. The manuscript is written on a type of paper that was not manufactured anywhere in Europe before 1450, which means that the monk to whom it is traditionally attributed, and who died in 1391, ---- it.

Modals Verbs of Obligation, Necessity & Prohibition

5. Once the automated logging system is installed next semester, the technicians ---- each measurement manually, which will free them for the far more demanding analytical work the department has been postponing.

Future Tenses

6. I am afraid I cannot attend the departmental meeting on Friday afternoon; I ____ a group of visiting researchers around the new laboratory, and the timetable was fixed weeks ago.

Future Tenses

7. Unless the funding agency ____ its decision on the grant applications before the end of the month, the laboratory will have to suspend the two clinical trials that are already under way.

Present Perfect Tense & Present Perfect Continuous Tense

8. The evaluation committee ---- its final report to the ministry last Thursday, but the document has not been made public yet.

Tense Agreement in Time Clauses

9. The moment the last of the archived field recordings ----, the linguists will begin comparing the dialects spoken on either side of the mountain range.

Modals Verbs of Ability & Possibility

10. With her publication record and her fluency in three languages, Dr. Aydın ---- the international research grant without much difficulty, but she chose to remain in the private sector and never even applied.

Present Perfect Tense & Present Perfect Continuous Tense

11. Since the laboratory ---- the automated sequencing protocol in 2019, the number of samples it can process in a single working day ---- more than fourfold.

Modals Verbs of Obligation, Necessity & Prohibition

12. Since the journal moved to an entirely digital submission system, contributors ---- printed copies of their manuscripts; nothing in the guidelines forbids or even discourages the practice, and a number of senior scholars still post them out of sheer habit.

Simple Present & Present Continuous Tense

13. The materials science laboratory ---- an electron microscope so sophisticated that researchers from three neighbouring universities regularly book time on it.

Types of Pronouns

14. The 1783 eruption of Laki, ---- released enough sulphur dioxide to disrupt harvests across northern Europe for two consecutive seasons, is still used to calibrate volcanic forcing in climate models.

Modals Verbs of Ability & Possibility

15. The signal has been traced to a source roughly forty light years from the solar system, which means that whatever is producing it ---- a spacecraft built by human beings.

Present Perfect Tense & Present Perfect Continuous Tense

16. Although the volcano ---- ash continuously for the past six weeks, the monitoring team ---- no significant change in the underground pressure readings so far.

Modals Verbs of Ability & Possibility

17. The lights in the observatory dome have been burning since dawn and all three vehicles are still parked outside, which can only mean that the team ---- still analysing the data from last night's session.

Tense Agreement in Time Clauses

18. Since the regional seed bank was established in 2009, the number of locally adapted crop varieties available to smallholder farmers ---- steadily.

Modals Verbs of Ability & Possibility

19. Although the expedition had been pinned down by the blizzard for almost two days, the rescue helicopter ---- the base camp shortly before nightfall on Thursday.

Past Simple Tense & Past Continuous Tense

20. Until the theory of plate tectonics gained acceptance in the 1960s, most geologists ---- that the continents had always occupied their present positions.

Past Simple Tense & Past Continuous Tense

21. When the committee finally ---- the funding proposal, the researchers immediately began recruiting participants for the longitudinal study.

Past Simple Tense & Past Continuous Tense

22. The photograph captures a single instant in the summer of 1962: children ---- in the square, vendors were shouting their prices, and a tram was crawling past the fountain.

Types of Pronouns

23. The reading habits of adolescents who have grown up with smartphones differ in almost every measurable respect from ---- of the generation that reached adulthood before the internet became widely available.

Modals Verbs of Obligation, Necessity & Prohibition

24. Looking back, the editor concedes that the journal ---- the controversial figure without first asking the authors for their raw data; the humiliating retraction that followed could easily have been avoided.

Simple Present & Present Continuous Tense

25. I am afraid I must miss the faculty lunch on Thursday: I ---- the external examiner at one o'clock that day, an appointment we arranged only last week, and I ---- no way of moving it at such short notice.

Simple Present & Present Continuous Tense

26. Although the museum's newly opened east wing ---- more than three thousand artefacts from the late Bronze Age, no more than a tenth of them can be put on display at any one time.

Modals Verbs of Ability & Possibility

27. Her coat was still hanging behind the door and her coffee cup had been left half full; since nothing else could account for the state of the office, the researcher ---- the building in a great hurry.

Types of Pronouns

28. The two anonymous referees to ---- the manuscript had been sent in the first round both recommended outright rejection, yet the editor chose to invite a substantially revised version.

Simple Present & Present Continuous Tense

29. Whenever he prepares a béarnaise for the tasting menu, the chef ---- the sauce at least four times, since he insists that it ---- unpleasantly sharp if the vinegar goes into the pan too early.

Tense Agreement in Time Clauses

30. ---- had the newly built bridge been opened to traffic ---- inspectors detected worrying cracks in one of its main support columns.

Modals Verbs of Obligation, Necessity & Prohibition

31. If the research team wants its grant to be renewed for a second term, it ---- the interim report before Friday; the funding body is notorious for rejecting late submissions without any further correspondence.

Modals Verbs of Obligation, Necessity & Prohibition

32. Under the laboratory's safety protocol, visitors ---- the culture plates under any circumstances; the document treats this as an absolute prohibition rather than a mere expectation, since even momentary contact can ruin months of work.

Simple Present & Present Continuous Tense

33. The shuttle bus linking the north campus to the city centre ---- every twenty minutes throughout the academic year, so students seldom bother to consult the printed timetable.

Modals Verbs of Ability & Possibility

34. The seismic network has recorded unusual tremors beneath the caldera, and volcanologists warn that the mountain ---- at some point within the next decade, though nothing is certain yet.

Present Perfect Tense & Present Perfect Continuous Tense

35. The manuscript on display in the second hall is the oldest complete copy of the epic that ---- to the public anywhere in Europe.

Future Tenses

36. - Why have you brought all those printed charts and satellite images with you today?
- Because I ____ the committee how dramatically the coastline has retreated since 2010.

Future Tenses

37. The ethics board has assured the research team that the funding for the marine sampling project will be transferred to the university account as soon as the final risk assessment ____ by the two independent reviewers.

Modals Verbs of Obligation, Necessity & Prohibition

38. Because her supervisor had already obtained ethical approval covering the whole project, Deniz ---- a separate application for her own sub-study, which spared her several weeks of tedious paperwork.

Simple Present & Present Continuous Tense

39. I must ask to be left off the programme for Friday morning, as I ---- a delegation of visiting scholars around the excavation trenches at ten, and the arrangement was made weeks ago.

Present Perfect Tense & Present Perfect Continuous Tense

40. Dr. Ateş ---- to the Antarctic research station three times so far, and she is due to fly out there once again in November.