PRESENT
PERFECT
CONTINUOUS
AND
PAST PERFECT
CONTINUOUS
LEVEL B1
Future Continuous Quiz
1. I ________ during rush hour.
will be driving
will have drive
will be drive
2. He will not be _____ the bus today.
take
taken
taking
3. They ________ the cottage that weekend.
using
'll be using
're be using
4. Nigel _____ be coming to the picnic.
won't
won't not
willn’t
5. Where ________ sleeping?
you be
will you
will you be
6. We'll be ________ the news at 10pm.
watch
watching
to watch
7. I'll try my best to spot you. What ________ wearing?
will you
will
will you be
8. Don't forget your snowpants. It ________ by the time you get to
school.
will snowing
is snowing
will be snowing
9. At noon tomorrow, I ________ on a beach somewhere.
'll be relaxing
relax
will being relax
10. Sorry, I can't. I ________ my daughter to work at that time.
will be taking
'll take
won't be take
PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS
We use the present perfect continuous to talk about repeated
activities which started at a particular time in the past and are
continuing up until now: I've been going to Spain on holiday every
year since 1987. I haven't been eating much lunch lately. I've
been going to the gym at lunchtimes.
Helen Thayer has never let age stop her. She and her husband, Bill, fulfilled a
lifelong dream for their 40th wedding anniversary. They walked 1600 miles
(2575 kilometers) in intense heat across the Gobi Desert. There they met
Mongolian nomads1 and learned about their culture. To celebrate 50 years of
marriage, the Thayer's walked almost 900 miles (1448 kilometers) across the
Sahara Desert to study the customs of the people who live there. Now in her
seventies, Thayer keeps on planning trips for the future. Thayer, born in New
Zealand, has been exploring the outdoors for most of her life. Since
childhood, she has traveled widely in harsh climates and across rough lands.
She has walked to the North Pole with her dog as her only companion. She
has also kayaked 2200 miles (3541 kilometers) down the Amazon and done
several mountain climbs. These trips haven’t been easy, but they’ve been
very satisfying. In recent years, Thayer has been talking to groups around the
Present perfect simple Present perfect continuous
Focuses on the result Focuses on the activity
You've cleaned the bathroom! It looks
I've been gardening. It's so nice out there.
lovely!
Says 'how many' Says 'how long'
She's read ten books this summer. She's been reading that book all day.
Describes an activity which may
Describes a completed action
continue
I've written you an email. I've been writing emails.
When we can see evidence of recent
activity
The grass looks wet. Has it been raining?
I know, I'm really red. I've been running!
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS
We use the past perfect continuous to talk about
actions that continued for a period before another
action or situation in the past. We use it to focus
on the duration of the action. The action may or
may not have continued up to the moment we are
talking about it.
Every rock climber who has come to Yosemite has a dream. Alex Honnold’s dream was to free
solo Half Dome, a 2130-foot (649-meter) wall of granite. Free soloing means climbing with only
rock shoes and some chalk to help keep the hands dry. Honnold couldn’t use a rope or
anything else to help him stick to the slippery stone. The few people who had climbed Half
Dome before had used ropes, and it had taken them more than a day to do the climb. On a
bright September morning, Honnold was clinging2 to the face of Half Dome, less than 100 feet
(30 meters) from the top. He had been climbing for two hours and forty-five minutes, but
suddenly, he stopped. Something potentially disastrous had occurred—he had lost some of his
confidence. He hadn’t felt that way two days before when he’d been racing up the same rock
with a rope. That climb had gone well. Today though, Honnold hesitated. He knew that even
the slightest doubt could cause a deadly fall, thousands of feet to the valley floor below. He
knew he had to get moving, so he chalked his hands, adjusted his feet, and started climbing
again. Within minutes, he was at the top. Bloggers spread the news of Honnold’s two-hour-and-
fifty-minute free solo, and climbers were amazed. On this warm fall day, 23-year-old Alex
Honnold had just set a new record in one of climbing’s biggest challenges.
