Present Perfect or Past Simple?
Good evening. This is 9 o’clock news.
Several men _spent (spend) the night in police cells following the riots in Coventry. A female doctor from Leeds ___was given
(be given) a five year suspended sentence for administering a fatal overdose to an elderly patient. And in Shropshire a woman admited__
(admit) killing her husband after years of abuse. Here are the details. Riots __broke out (break out) in Coventry last night following the election of an extreme right-wingcandidate to the city council.
Four men ___spent___ (spend) the night in the cells, but police _released
(release) them early in the morning.
Dr. Mary Jenson, from Leeds, who __gave (give) an overdose to a 75-year-oldpatient last May, _claimed (claim) yesterday in court that it was the patient’s wish. The family __said__ (say) in the hearing that they __didn’t know___ (not know) anything about this. The judge _gave
(give) the woman a five-yearsuspended sentence after the jury
__returned (return) a guilty verdict.
And finally, a Shropshire woman _admited (admit) killing her husband. They __had___(have) a violent row which ended (end) with her shooting him. She is charged with manslaughter. That’s all for now. The next news will be at 10 o’clock.
One day, a few years ago, a train was travelling through the English countryside. This was in the days when trains had small compartments. In one compartment there were four people : a young girl, quite pretty ; an old lady ; an army officer in his mid-thirties and a young cockney, ever ready to have joke.
Suddenly the train went into a tunnel. The lights had not been put on, so for half a minute the carriage was in complete darkness. And suddenly came the sound of a large kiss followed almost immediately by a loud slap. When it was light again in the carriage, the officer was with a bleeding nose and swollen eye.
The old lady thought to herself that the young lady was very brave, because she had dared to hit the officer for stealing a kiss in such a cowardly way.
And the young girl thought, that the officer should kiss the old lady, not her.
The poor officer thought to himself, that cockney was quite a clever chap who had kissed the girl, and the girl had hit the officer.
And the cockney laughed to himself and thought that he was a clever chap. He had kissed the back of his hand, had hit the officer in the face and nobody had said a word.
