had been – SEI 新宿英会話教室 BLOG

Space Shot

From Twitter

Read
We_①_ been _②_ #Shuttle 31 years when it was _③_ in 2011. May 27 @ 5:33am Asia Pacific Time (4:33pm Eastern Standard Time) 2 @NASA astronauts launch on a @SpaceX #Falcon #CrewDragon to the #ISS. Watch @ http://nasa.gov.

Choose
had
has
fly
flew
flying
flown
canceled
cancellation

Answers And Explanations
1. had (because been is present)
2. flying (because had+ been requires a gerund)
3. cancelled (because the past tense is necessary after was in this context)

Apologies to @SpaceCoastDaily
for the image of @AstroBehnken
& @Astro_Doug
Hurley.

What Were You Doing When…?

From Twitter:

Read:
_____ drinking tea only ten minutes before the phone rang.

Choose:
have been
was
had been

Answers & Explanations
The answers are ‘had been’ (formal, correct and written) and ‘was’ (casual and spoken). ‘Have been” doesn’t work because it is in the present; we need a past answer dictated by ‘rang.’