English Grammar - Tenses
Fill in the blank with the correct option : The first two sentences in the passage are in the ……… .
Direction (Q. No. 51 to 60) : Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow — The third great defect of our civilization is that it does not know what to do with its knowledge. Science has given us powers fit for the gods, yet we use them like small children. For example, we do not know how to manage our machines. Machines were made to be man's servants; yet he has grown so dependent on them that they are in a fair way to become his masters. Already most men spend most of their lives looking after and waiting upon machines. And the machines are very stern masters. They must be fed with coal, and given petrol to drink, and oil to wash with, and they must be kept at the right temperature. And if they do not get their meals when they expect them, they grow sulky and refuse to work, or burst with rage, and blow up, and spread ruin and destruction all round them. So we have to wait upon them very attentively and do all that we can to keep them in a good temper. Already we find it difficult either to work or play without the machines, and a time may come when they will rule us altogether, just as we rule the animals. And this brings me to the point at which I asked, "What do we do with all the time and energy that the machines have saved for us?" The answer, I think, is that we should try to become more civilized. For the machines themselves, and the power which the machines have given us, are not civilization but aids to civilization. But you will remember that we agreed at the beginning that being civilized meant making and liking beautiful things, thinking freely, and living rightly and maintaining justice equally between man and man. Man has a better chance today to do these things than he ever had before; he has more time, more energy, less to fear and less to fight against.
Options:
- simple present tense
- simple present & present perfect
- past perfect
- simple present & simple future
Right Answer: simple present & present perfect
The first sentence, the third great defect of our civilization is that it does not know what to do with its knowledge, uses the forms is and does not know, both of which belong to the simple present tense and state a general, continuing truth. The second sentence, science has given us powers fit for the gods, uses has given, which is the present perfect tense and links a past action to its present result. There is no past perfect or future form in either sentence. Hence option (2) is the correct answer.This question is part of English Grammar - Tenses, which has 4 practice questions with answers.
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