Free Advanced Grammar Exercise: Past Tenses

For each sentence, choose the best word or phrase to complete the gap from the choices below.

When Rashed first took the IELTS test he English for more than five years.
When the fire alarm went off, we left the school and outside for the fire brigade to arrive. They only took three minutes.
At the time of the accident, the accused a hand-held mobile phone and was not in proper control of his vehicle.
When the two stars announced their divorce, they said that both of them other partners for some time.
It was only when I half the book that I realised I had read it before many years earlier.
At around the time their first daughter was born everybody to a song called 'Did Debbie do' so they decided to call her 'Debbie'.
Before the first Kyoto conference most people anything about global warming.
I'm sorry I missed your call. I a shower and I simply didn't hear the phone ring.
When my grandparents got married they each other for four weeks. But today is their sixtieth wedding anniversary.
When I was in my teens and twenties, I a lot of TV but these days I spend more time online.
The writer, Tom Brinkley started his career as a journalist but from 1953 until his death in 2007, he his living writing science fiction fantasy novels.
One evening, while working late Thomas accidentally deleted all the files on his company's servers. He soon realised he a mistake which would cost him his job.

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