General review: modal verbs. The oblique moods

167. Find and correct ten mistakes in the following text.

Did you hear about the teacher which was helping one of her kindergarten students to put on his boots?

He asked for help and she could to see why. With her pulling and him pushing, the boots still won’t go on. When the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost whimpered when the little boy said, ‘Teacher, they can be on the wrong feet.’ She looked and sure enough, they were.

It wasn’t any easy pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She could keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet. He then announced, ‘These aren’t my boots.’

Had she been a little less professional she would scream right in his face ‘Why didn’t you say so?’ like she wanted to. But she bit her tongue and managed keep a poker face.

Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off. Then he said, ‘They’re my brother’s boots. I must wear them because my Mom doesn’t want to buy me new ones.’

She didn’t know if she must laugh or cry. She mustered up the grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again. She said, ‘Now, where are your mittens?’

He said, ‘I stuffed them in the toes of my boots…’

Her trial starts next month.

168. Fill in each of the gaps with one suitable word.

A. A man in his nineties should _______ (1) well past the terror of childhood, but as my infirmities slowly creep up on me, like waves licking closer and _______ (2) to some indifferently built castle _______ (3) sand, that terrible face grows clearer and clearer _______ (4) my mind’s eye. It glows _______ (5) a dark star in the constellations of my childhood. What I might _______ (6) done yesterday, who I _______ (7) have seen here in my room at the nursing home, _______ (8) I might have said to them or they to me… those things are gone, but the face of the man in t he black suit grows ever clearer, ever closer, and I remember every word he _______ (9). I don’t want to think of him, but I _______ (10) help it, and sometimes at night my old heart beats _______ (11) hard and so fast I think it _______ (12) tear itself right clear of my chest. So I uncap my fountain pen and force my trembling old hand to write this pointless anecdote in _______ (13) diary one of my great-grandchildren – I _______ (14) remember her name for sure, at _______ (15) not right now, but I know it starts with an S – gave to me last Christmas, and which I have never written in _______ (16) now. Now I _______ (17) write in it. I will _______ (18) the story of _______ (19) I met the man in the black suit on the bank of Castle Stream one afternoon in _______ (20) summer of 1914.

(from The Man in the Black Suit by Stephen King)

B. Tom looked behind _______ (1) and saw the man coming out of the Green Cage. He walked faster. Perhaps if he _______ (2) seen that man five minutes before, staring at him from a table, he wouldn’t _______ (3) suspicious now. But there was _______ (4) doubt that the man was following him.

At the corner, Tom leaned forward and ran across Fifth Avenue. There was Raoul’s. _______ (5) he take a chance and go in for another drink? Or should he run over to Park Avenue and _______ (6) to escape by hiding in dark doorways? He went into Raoul’s.

As he walked up to an empty seat at the bar he was _______ (7) who that man outside _______ (8) be. Was that the kind of man they _______ (9) send after him? He didn’t look _______ (10) a police officer or a detective. He looked as _______ (11) he were a businessman, someone’s father, well-dressed with grey hair. Was that the kind of man who was _______ (12) do a job like this? He _______ (13) chat with in a bar and then bang! – one hand on the shoulder and the other hand holding a policeman’s identification. Tom Ripley, you’re _______ (14) arrest! Tom watched the door.

Here he was, coming inside, taking a place at the bar. Tom stared at him. They _______ (15) give you more than ten years, Tom thought. _______ (16) fifteen, but with good behavior – If _______ (17) he hadn’t pretended to work for the income tax office! He knew, he shouldn’t _______ (18) cheated all those people. He _______ (19) have told them they owed money. Then they _______ (20) have sent him all those checks. But he never cashed the checks. It was really just a silly game that made him feel powerful.

(after The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith)

169. Translate the text.