Murder Mystery Scene 1 - Language Focus

Rob and Stephen look at how ‘must’, ‘could’ and ‘perhaps’ can be used to speak about certainty and possibility.

Watch the video. Then go to the Tasks and do the activities.

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Language level

B1 Intermediate

Hi Which option is the correct one in the following sentence? Many of the ancient remains show that there ______ life here for a long time. a. could have been b. must have c. might be d. couldn’t been In my opinion, A is correct since the sentence is in past tense, but C can be deceptive too because Might is the past of May...And the verb SHOW makes it somewhat complex so, is that verb showing the main tense as Present or the adverbial phrase " for a long time" as Past?

Hi bakh.sh85,

I'm afraid we don't provide explanations or answers for tasks from elsewhere. We're happy to explain the answers to our own questions and tasks, of course.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello, I have two questions about task 2 please. - Why we use "have" instead of "has" while the subjetc is "the dog" or "he" or "she" ? - Why don't we use the coutinous form with the past while it is used with the present ? Thank you for your help

Hi fabien.bertho,

Modal verbs (such as 'might') can be followed by 'have' + past participle -- in these cases, 'have' does not change form. You can read more about this on our modals with 'have' page.

Could you please give an example of what you mean in your second question? I'm afraid I don't understand exactly what you mean.

Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

hello, could you help me with this please "We could be looking for a tea drinker". Why do we use could be v-ing here. How about "we could look for a tea drinker" instead? Thank you.