07th April 2011

As we have promised with Miss Zu, today we are required to send an argumentative essay about…

  “Certain television programmed are considered to be unsuitable for children. Do you Agree or Disagree? Give your opinion”.

For my opinion, I totally agree with this statement. This is because nowadays, many television programmed are showing the programmed which full of violent elements, sexual and other negative elements. As we know, children have an immature mind which is easy to be influence by the television programmed that they watch. Thus, parents should control and avoid their children from watching television programmed which full of negative elements.

After that, we continue our learning. Today we learn about...

PERFECT TENSES

In this topic, we are going to look at two perfect tense, i.e. the present perfect tense and the past perfect tense.

Present perfect tense

• auxiliary verb 'have' / 'has' + past participle form of the verb

Example :

Affirmative	o   Zuhayr has sold the car   o   Syamil has presented the marketing report   o   The children have flown to london several times   o   They have enjoyed their visits here
Negative	o   Zuhayr has not done the sales figures   o   Syamil has not briefed the manager about the company’s performance   o   The children have not visited the US   o   They have not stopped dreaming of visiting the US
Question	o   Has Zuhayr enrolled for the management course yet ?   o   Has Syamil spoken to you about venturing into business ?   o   Have you been to the Brsa Malaysia offices ?   o   Have the children talked about going there ?

Functions of the present perfect tense

1)     An action or situation that happened at an unspecified time in the past .

Example :

Ø  I have been to London

Ø  The Education Minister has announced a new measure to curb vandalism in schools.

2)     An action or situation that happened more than once at unspecified time in past

Example :

Ø  Norma has seen the movies three times

3)     An action or situation that began in the past, continues to be true at the moment of speaking and may continue to happen in the future.

Example :

Ø  I have lived in Malaysia since my school days..

Time words of the present perfect tense

Time words	Examples
Before	The children have met the teacher before
Just	The foreign worker has just renewed his working visa
Lately, Recently	Lately / recently, the price of oil has soared to a record high
Already	The young businessman has already acquired several high-end properties in the area.
Yet	The business student has not submitted her thesis proposal yet.
Still	She still has not confirmed her research topic with the lecturer.
So far, until now, up to now	So far, Danial has done the report five times.
Since	The mechanic has worked at the workshop since 1998
For	She has shown her loyalty to that company for almost ten years.

Past perfect tense

•auxiliary verb 'had' + past participle form of the verb

Example :

Affirmative	o   Andy had explained the project to the Dean before he went ahead it.   o   The other students had urged her not to give up by the time the lecturer knew about her problem.   o   The party had already started when they arrived
Negative	o   Before today’s meeting, the Managing Director had not approved the budget for the project.   o   The team had not anticipated the problem when they started on the project.   o   They had not thought of a solution to the problem when they met the counselor.
Question	o   Had they received the green light before they continued with the project ?   o   Had he gone to the market when she arrived at his house ?   o   Had you obtained your driving license by the time you turned 18 ?

Functions of the past perfect tense

1)     Two situations or actions that happened in the past. The verb of the earlier action is in the past perfect, while the verb of the later action is in the simplest past.

Example :

Ø  I had submitted my thesis before the lecturer changed the research topic

2)     A situation or action that happened before a particular time in the past

Example :

Ø  Before the recent trip, he had never traveled overseas.

Time words of the past perfect tense

Time words	Examples
Before	Adi had noticed the man before he boarded the bus.
After	After Asyraf had done his assignment, he submitted it to his lecturer.
When	When the staff had spoken to the manager, he relayed the message to the chief of staff.
As soon as	I went home as soon as the rain had stopped
By the time	By the time the police arrived, a large crowd had gathered around the injured man.
until	My father had refused to let me join the trip until my lecturer convinced him it was a study excursion.

The following table shows the past participle forms of some other verbs :

Base form	Simple present form	Simple past form	Present participle form	Past participle form
Invite	Invite, Invites	Invited	Inviting	Invited
Walk	Walk, Walks	Walked	Walking	Walked
Ask	Ask, Asks	Asked	Asking	Asked
Choose	Choose, Chooses	Chose	Choosing	Chosen
Hit	Hit, Hits	Hit	Hitting	Hit
Let	Let, Lets	Let	Letting	Let