English Grammar and Usage

When referring to a completed action at a specific time in the past ('two weeks ago'), we use the simple past tense. 'Visited' correctly indicates this completed action, while 'had visited' (past perfect) would require another past event to provide context.

The past continuous tense ('was shining') describes an action that was in progress at a specific moment in the past. When 'we went out' (simple past), the sun was already in the process of shining, making 'was shining' the correct choice.

The past tense of the verb 'saw' is already given. We are now talking of the action....so 'steal' will be the correct option.

 Whenever we talk about two past events. he one happened first takes past perfect tense.

 This is the case of present perfect continous tense.

 Whenever we talk of two events in the past the event held first takes past perfect tense

 This is the case of simple past tense.

The first blank needs simple past 'left' (completed action in 2001). The second blank needs present perfect 'have been living' to show an action/state continuing from past to present. 'Since' with a past date typically triggers present perfect in the main clause.

With 'usually' indicating a habitual action, simple present 'wears' is correct. Subject 'she' is third-person singular, so 'wear' becomes 'wears'. 'Was wearing' suggests a specific past occasion, not habit.

To examine people or things in a way that will show their differences, we use idiom 'contrasted with'.

This is the correct option as this part of the sentence is grammatically incorrect. The sentence violates the rule of parallelism. Here, the sentence is incorrect because it displays no consistency whatsoever; the verbs change from ‘with our president’ to ‘our vice-president’ and then back to ‘with our prime minister’. The correct sentence would be, ”During his visit, the American president will have meetings with our president, our vice-president and our prime minister”.

The simple present tense 'keeps' is used for habitual or repeated actions. The phrase 'these days' indicates a current ongoing habit, so 'keeps' (simple present) correctly shows this repeated action. 'Is keeping' would suggest a temporary current action, while 'keep' is grammatically incorrect with the singular subject 'Raman'.

The past continuous tense 'was reading' is required because it describes an action that was in progress when another past event occurred (wife came). Past continuous (was/were + verb-ing) shows simultaneous actions in the past. 'Read' is simple past, 'is reading' is present continuous, and 'has been reading' is present perfect continuous.

The present continuous tense 'is speaking' is correct because the phrase 'at this time' indicates the action is happening right now. Present continuous (am/is/are + verb-ing) describes current temporary actions. 'Speak' is simple present, 'spoke' is simple past, and 'spoken' is a past participle that cannot stand alone as the main verb.

The simple past tense 'bought' is correct because 'last month' indicates a completed action in the past. Simple past is used for finished actions with specific past time markers. 'Buy' is present tense, 'was buying' is past continuous (incomplete action), and 'is buying' is present continuous.