In the following passage from George Orwell’s Shooting an elephant, some of the verbs have been deliberately omitted. Supply the appropriate tense for each missing verb, the plain form of which is given in brackets.

I got up. The Burmans ………………… (be) already ………………. (race) past me across the meadows. It was obvious that the elephant …………………. (will) never rise again, but he …………………. (be) not dead. He ……………………….. (breathe) very rhythmically with long, rattling gasps, his great mound of a side painfully rising and falling. His mouth was far open – I could see far down into caverns of pale pink throat. I …………………………. (wait) a long time for him to die, but his breathing did not …………………….. (weak). Finally I ……………………….. (fire) my two remaining shots into the spot where I …………………………. (think) his heart must be. The thick blood welled out of him like red velvet but still he did not die. He …………………………… (die) very slowly and in great agony, but in some world remote from me where not even a bullet could damage him further.

Solution

I got up. The Burmans were already racing past me across the meadows. It was obvious that the elephant would never rise again, but he was not dead. He was breathing very rhythmically with long, rattling gasps, his great mound of a side painfully rising and falling. His mouth was far open – I could see far down into caverns of pale pink throat. I waited a long time for him to die, but his breathing did not weaken. Finally I fired my two remaining shots into the spot where I thought his heart must be. The thick blood welled out of him like red velvet but still he did not die. He was dying very slowly and in great agony, but in some world remote from me where not even a bullet could damage him further.