Larisa Lubimova – English Grammar with Kudjo. Part 4 Понятная и забавная грамматика для детей и взрослых (страница 3)

1 The friends ***** worrying about Kudjo and Kit.

2 They have been trying very hard to find them but *****.

3 Meanwhile, the cats are trying to put out the fire as hard *****.

4 They have just managed to extinguish it without any firefighters. *****?

5 The wall is black with grime but the window is open now. *****?

6 To make things worse, Chilly has caught a cold. If only he would take medicine! But he *****.

PAST ABILITY

To talk about ability in the past, we use could/couldn’t or was/wasn’t/were/weren’t able to:

There are some situations when we tend to prefer one or the other.

1. Use be able to for a specific accomplishment (in contrast to general ability): Despite being a poor driver, Luna was able to park the car well.

Remember: If an action was realised or carried out in a particular situation in the past it is expressed with the help of was/were able to, but when could is used with reference to the past, it denotes only the ability or possibility of performing an action.

However, the negative couldn’t is possible in all situations.

Chilly couldn’t help Kudjo that night. = Chilly wasn’t able to help Kudjo that night.

In such situations we can substitute was/were able to with managed to or succeeded in: Cuba was able to persuade Luna.= Cuba managed to persuade Luna.= Cuba succeeded in persuading Luna.

2. Using could/couldn’t is more common than was able to for:

• verbs of the senses and of thinking (hear, see, smell, taste, feel, think, believe, remember, understand): It was pitch dark but Chilly could see that place.

• with the words almost, nearly and hardly: Chilly was so shocked that he could hardly speak.

It’s not wrong to use was able to in these situations, it’s just a little less common.

EXERCISE 3

Complete the sentences using could or was/were able to in positive or negative forms:

1 After the cats put out the fire, Kit ***** get into the cellar.

2 It was pitch dark in the cellar, but Kit ***** see well (all cats can see perfectly in the dark).

3 Unfortunately, he ***** find what he had expected to.

4 He mewed hoping to attract the blue ball, but the answer was a deafening silence.The only sound Kit ***** hear was the sound of his own tail tapping on the floor.

5 He ***** hardly believe that all his efforts had led to naught.

6 Having looked for the blue ball everywhere, the kitten ***** find it and had to come back home without any good news.

To talk about ability in the future, we only have one option – will/won’t be able to.

The dogs won’t be able to do anything without Kudjo.

To sum up, we use be able to instead of can:

• after another modal verb (will/would/must/might/shall/should).

They might be able to find him in the forest.

• if we want to use an -ing form or a to-Infinitive.

They enjoy being able to share all their feelings with him.

They used to be able to fight for each other.

• if we want to use Perfect Tenses.

They haven’t been able to find either Kit or Kudjo yet.

EXERCISE 4

Put the correct form of be able to in the story about Kit’s abilities:

1 He didn’t use ***** climb trees when he was little.

2 Now he loves ***** climb up any heights.

3 He ***** just ***** reach a squirrel hollow, which frightened the squirrels a lot.

4 When he gets older, he ***** catch birds.

5 He wants ***** do something useful for Luna and other dogs.

6 If he were bigger and stronger, he would ***** find Kudjo.

EXERCISE 5

Fill the gaps in the story with missing words:

Disappointed and ***** Kit finally returned home, which made Luna ***** with joy. If only they could ***** Kudjo as well! The kitten explained that he had ***** to find the glowing blue ball to be able to look for Kudjo with its help. While ***** to Kit, Chilly remembered seeing the glowing blue light in front of Kudjo standing on the ***** motionless. Bingo! The kitten was absolutely right! If they can ***** the blue light ball, it will definitely ***** them to Kudjo! The dogs got so excited that they forgot one ***** thing – they still don’t know where to look for the ***** either. It’s time they worked out the strategy.

EXERCISE 6

Find and correct 6 mistakes in the sentences:

1 They have been trying to work out the strategy since yesterday and have just able to do it.

2 They remembered canning to see the glowing blue ball whenever they were in trouble or were about to get into trouble.

3 Chilly came up with the idea of provoking a difficult situation so that the ball could help appearing.

4 The idea sounded so brilliant that Chilly wished Kudjo can be proud of him.

5 The only thing they haven’t can to do yet is to decide what trouble to create for themselves.

6 Finally Luna managed setting up a «trap» for the ball.

EXERCISE 7

Choose the correct option:

1 Luna suggested getting lost in the forest but ***** which one.

a cannot to decide

b could not to decide

c couldn’t decide

2 The dogs ***** choose the place for a “trap” until Chilly put forward his plan.

a couldn’t to

b hadn’t been able to

c haven’t been able to