高三英语复习：选时态要根据题干定格时间

南开中学 段胜利

动词时态语态是高考考查的重点，也是整个英语语言体系中的主干知识。由于汉语里动词没有时态的变化，因此，学习和掌握英语，就要建立时态“感觉”。不管汉语里说不说“过去，现在和将来”，使用英语时，动词的时间背景是什么，我们要不断体味。例如：

——Uh, this is your first time to the city, right?

——Yeah. How did you know?

——这是你第一次到城里来，对吗？

——没错，你怎么知道的？

回答中“How did you know?”使用的是一般过去时。这样的表达，用汉语是难以体现的，学习时要特别留心积累。

动词的时态，在时间上涉及过去、过去将来、现在和将来；在形态上有一般、进行、完成和完成进行，因此，时态总共有十六个。回答动词时态、语态题目时，要根据题干，捕捉动作的时间背景，这是选准时态的前提和关键。

一、判断时态找时间，不要被“for”“already”和“yet”等词所迷惑

例如：— Has your father returned from Africa yet?

— Yes, but he___ here for only three days before his company sent him to Australia.

A. was B. has been

C. will be D. would be

很多同学一看到回答中“…here for only three days”就马上选了B，用动词的现在完成时。但是后半句“…before his company sent him to Australia.”中的“sent”显然就告诉我们这是过去的时间背景，整句话“他在这呆了三天之后就被公司派往了澳大利亚”，这说明他现在不在这里。因此，本题是不能选择现在完成时的，应当选择A。之所以出现这样的错误，是同学们一看到“for”就认为它是现在完成时的标志。其实，for表示一个时间段，过去、现在和将来都可用。

同样的道理，遇到副词already，yet等也要根据句子的语境做具体分析。很多情况下，already，yet都用在了完成时，因为它们会配合语句时间，表达“(到……时)已经，还……”，例如：

We haven't met our new neighbors yet, so we don't know their names.

但也不要认为一有这些词就一定选完成时态，例如：

You already told me yesterday that he would not give up another trying.(句子中有具体的过去时间“yesterday”，提示一般过去时)

了解了这一点，你再做一做下面两个题：

1.I ____in London for many years，but I’ve never regretted my final decision to move back to China.

A. lived B. was living

C. have lived D. had lived

2.My cousin went to Canada two years ago.He ____ there for a few months and then went to America.

A.worked B.would work

C.would be working

D. has been working

二、捕捉时间找“两处”：即题干给定的时间和已知动词的时态

题干若给出了具体的时间，时态选择相对明显；如果没有，就要留意不设空动词的时态，它也能给出待选时态的时间背景。

例一：I know a little bit about Italy as my wife and I ____ there several years ago.

A. are going B. had been

C. went D. have been

题干中前半句“know”，一般现在时；后半句出现“several years ago”，明显的表示过去的时间，所以选择一般过去时“went”，答案C。本题很多同学都顺着中文“去过”而误选了“D. have been”，是没有掌握好语句中出现了具体过去时间这一关键。

例二：The young girl sitting next to me on the plane was very nervous. She ____ before.

A. hasn't flown B. didn't fly

C. hadn't flown D. wasn't flying

题干中前半句“was”，一般过去时；后半句最后出现“before”说明是在过去(was)之过去，前半句的“was”给出了选择过去完成时的时间背景，因此选择C。

例三：I got caught in the rain and my suit____.

A. has ruined B. had ruined

C. has been ruined

D. had been ruined