IV. Brush up your grammar

A. Grammar Folio:

The Present Perfect Continuous Tense

Утвердительная форма	Вопросительная форма	Отрицательная форма
I have been working	Have I been working?	I have not been working
He She has been working It	he Has she been working? it	He She has not been working It
We You have been working They	we Have you been working? they	We You have not been They working

Contractions

I/we/ they/you have = ‘ve (I’ve been waiting; They’ve been doing)

He/she/it has = ‘s (He’s been waiting; She’s been doing.)

Present Perfect Continuous выражает действие, начавшееся в прош­лом и продолжающееся в настоящем. Типичные предлоги для Present Perfect Continuous: since, for. Present Perfect Continuous пере­во­дит­ся на русский язык глаголом в настоящем времени.

Иногда практически нет различия в значении между Present Perfect и Present Perfect Continuous.

How long have you worked here?

How long have you been working here?

Глаголы с оттенком значения длительности (wait, work, discuss, travel, play, talk, learn и т.д.) употребляются в Present Perfect Continuous.

I have been playing chess since I was a boy.

Mike has been writing his translation for two hours.

Глаголы, не имеющие оттенка длительности (find, start, buy, die, lose, break, stop и т. д.), обычно не употребляются в Present Perfect Continuous Tense.

I have bought a new car.

He has lost his key.

Глаголы, выражающие состояние (like, love, hate, know, have for “possession” и т.д.), не употребляются в Present Perfect Continuous Tense.

We have known each other for a few weeks.

How long have you had your car?

Present Perfect в сравнении с Present Perfect Continuous часто выражает законченность действия.

I have written three letters today. (Present Perfect)

Я написал сегодня три письма.

Но:

I have been writing the third letter today. (Present Perfect Continuous)

Я пишу сегодня третье письмо.

B. Exercises

1. Translate into Russian and comment on the use of the Present

Perfect Continuous Tense.

1. Tim is a good partner. We have been cooperating for many years.

2. - How long have you been discussing your partnership’s agreement?

- For two hours already.

3. Jack has been working in his father’s business since he left school.

4. A private corporation may become public by selling its stock on the open market. For example, Google, the popular Internet search engine, has been selling its stock to the public since 2004.

5. Charles Koch is the owner of the largest American private corporation. The profits of the company have been growing steadily since Koch acquired Georgia-Pacific, an energy and natural resource business.

6. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. runs a chain of large department and grocery stores. It is the world’s largest public corporation by revenue. It has been generating sales of over $1 billion every 33 hours.

7 For the last ten years, each of the ten largest American corporations has been earning profits of more than $67 billion per year.

8. Jean Paul Agon is the chief executive officer of L’Oreal – the world’s largest cosmetics company. He has been managing the corporate direction for 15 years.

9. I have been thinking of incorporating since my company began to expand.

10. The management of the company has decided to change its organization structure. They have been working on this problem for a long time.

2. Use the Present Perfect Continuous instead of the infinitives in brackets.

1. I (to wait) for you for ages. Thank heavens you are here at last!

2. The Ford Motor Company (to produce) cars since 1903.

3. We (to run) our business as general partners for twenty years.

4. Since I became a stockholder I (to pay) income tax on my share of the company’s profits.

5. We (to talk) about managerial problems for two hours now, and we haven’t come to any conclusion yet.

6. The telephone (to ring) for five minutes, why don’t you answer it?

7. Tony (to work) hard since he was elected a corporate officer.

8. The number of sole proprietorships worldwide (to increase) steadily for the last 10 years. .

9. The partners (to discuss) the points in their articles of partnership (статьи партнёрского соглашения) for many hours.

3. Open the brackets using either the Present Perfect Continuous Tense

or the Present Perfect Tense. Translate the sentences into Russian

and explain the use of the tenses.

1. We are planning to open an office in Tokyo, so I (to learn) Japanese at evening classes for the last three months.

2. We (to sign) already our partnership’s agreement.

3. Robert Dotson, the chief executive officer of Mobile Telecom, (to supervise) the activities of the corporation since 2002.

4. How long you (to have) your own business?

5. This film company is a reasonable investment. They (to make) five very successful films.

6. Bill (to work) in his office since morning. It’s time to have dinner but he (not to come) yet.

7. Now I (to finish) my work, please have a look at it.

8. We (to wait) for his call ever since the morning but he (not to phone) us yet.

9. I never (to be) in France but I (to think) of visiting France ever since I was a little girl.

4. Put general question to each sentence and special questions to the

underlined words.

1. My friend Nick has opened a small French restaurant in the centre of the

city recently.

2. Nick has been operating his restaurant successfully for two months.

3. Bill Gates has left the high post of Microsoft CEO.

4. Bill Gates has accepted the position of the Chief Software Architect.

(главный разработчик ПО)

Since 2000 he has been developing NGWS program (Next Generation Windows

Services)

5. Steve Ballmer has accepted the responsibilities of Microsoft CEO.

6 Steve Ballmer has been doing his duties successfully since 2000.

5. Fill in prepositions or adverbs where necessary.

Corporations have evolved ------ various types. The first distinction is ------ a company is public or private. A private corporation is owned ------ just one or few people who are closely involved ------ managing the business. These people, often a family, own all the corporation’s stock, and no stock is sold ------ the public. Private investors buy stock ------ the open market, which gives private corporations access ------ large amounts ------ capital. Public companies are ------ two types: government-owned and quasi-government corporations. Government-owned corporations (------ called public-owned) are formed ------ federal or state governments ------ a specific public purpose, such as running local school districts. Quasi-government corporations (------ called quasi-public) are owned and operated ------ the federal, state, or local government. The focus ------ these corporations is providing a service ----- citizens, such as mail delivery or electricity, rather ------ earning a profit. Indeed, many quasi-public corporations operate ------ a loss.