Police Net Bank Robbers

Past Tenses

Put the verbs in the newspaper article into the correct tenses. Decide whether past simple, past continuous or past perfect is the most appropriate. Be careful to check if passive forms are needed.

One man __________ (kill) and a policeman

__________ (injure) this morning when police

__________ (surprise) a team of four bank

robbers as they __________ (break) into the

Gloucester Branch of the HSBE bank on

Larkhay Road.

The alarm __________ (raise) at 7.30am by

newspaper vendor Bill Bobbins who

__________ (hear) a drilling noise inside the

bank. When the police __________ (arrive)

they __________ (find) that the thieves

__________ (break) into the sportswear shop

next door to the bank on Saturday night and

then __________ (dig) a tunnel through the

side wall into the bank. Rather than risk

sending officers into the bank, the police

__________ (surround) the building and

__________ (wait) for the bank robbers to

emerge.

When the four men finally __________ (leave)

the building at 10.00am they __________

(find) nearly forty armed police officers

waiting for them. Three of the men

__________ (surrender) to the police

immediately, but the fourth, believed to be the

ringleader, __________ (try) to escape down a

back street. Police __________ (corner) the

man at the entrance to Gloucester station and,

when he __________ (open) fire with a small

gun, two officers __________ (return) fire

hitting the robber in the head and arm. He was

later pronounced dead at New Hope Hospital.

A policeman also __________ (go) to hospital

with a gunshot wound to the leg but

__________ (release) after treatment.

A police spokesman __________ (say) that the

robbers __________ (take) two cushions to

reduce the noise of the drill but __________

(not use) them because they __________ (not

think) anyone could hear the noise. They

__________ (forget) about the keen ears of Lai

Man-shing, who has sold newspapers outside

the bank every Sunday morning for the last

seven years.