Controlled Practice

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 508.

Presentation

During the discussion, the Communications Engineer used two tenses:

A. Present Continuous— to talk about how the system is working at the moment

e.g. We're using a modem

We're having problems

The files are being transmitted

They're not arriving

It'scosting us . ..

These sentences tell us about the TEMPORARY situation.

B. Present Simple — to talk about how the system works in theory or as specified

e.g. We send files

We start transmitting

It takes 5 minutes

The files are stored

These sentences tell us about the CHARACTERISTIC situation. The sentences are introduced with expressions like:

in theory.....

each time.....

say (for example).....

when/if ....

Note the У in the third person singular: It takes ...

A. Put the verbs in the right tense:

1. When we__________(send) a file, it__________(cost) us £1.00 a minute.

2. At the moment, it_____________________(cost) us too much.

3. I can't send the file now. The system_____________________(not work).

4. In principle, the client__________(access) the file when he__________(want).

5. Can you come and help? I_________.__________(have) a lot of problems with

this program.

6. For example, we__________(transmit) a file in the morning. The client__________

(get)the file out of the mailbox in the afternoon.

7. Currently we_____________________(spend) too much time transmitting files.

8. Breakdowns on the line_____________________(not happen) very often.

9. We________________ (lose) a lot of data because of this breakdown.

B. Correct these sentences, if necessary.

1. The Dialcom Service is operating from a large computer centre in London.

2. When you subscribe to the service, all your terminals can be connected to the mailbox.

3. You are controlling the password which is giving the user access to his own private electronic office.

4. The Data Network is providing access at many centres around the UK.

5. At the moment, Dialcom rapidly expands its international network.