Brock, That's also a good example of an instance when the simple past tense definitely means something very different from the present perfect ("I lived here for 5 years" means you don't live here anymore, though your example below means you're still hanging in here). I don't believe most examples of the perfect are much different content-wise from past tense, so yours is a great example for students to understand that the perfect is sometimes essential. larry >>> "Haussamen, Brock" <[log in to unmask]> - 4/3/01 10:59 AM >>> Gretchen, An example of the present perfect tense that is clearly not "completed": I have lived here for five years. A speaker might use the progressive--I have been living here for five years--but not necessarily. Brock -----Original Message----- From: Gretchen Lee [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Monday, April 02, 2001 11:28 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Verb Tense In a message dated 4/2/2001 8:00:28 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes:<< It might be interesting to change that play-by-play to a newspaper report. >> Bob, Thanks for the suggestion. My students write newspaper articles all the time. We covered the election in history by producing a newspaper, and it's one of the most popular choices in my reader's workshop ("Turn an event in the book into a newspaper article or write an editorial on an issue that was presented in the book you read"). They are very comfortable with the format which makes it ideal for this kind of assignment. I'll try it. It's certainly simpler than the advertising poster for the time travel agency I was toying with ("Book your trip to the Coliseum today! Scores of people are enjoying this exciting trip each and every minute! By this time next week, you will have been thrilled and excited by the gladiators who fought centuries ago . . . .") Gretchen in San Jose [log in to unmask] To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/