Exercise Past Simple, Past Continuous and Past Perfect

Oxford Practice Grammar By John Eastwood. We strongly recommend buying a hardcopy of this book.

Unit 19

Put the correct verb. Use past simple, past continuous, and past perfect.
Read this true story.

A young man (walk) into a supermarket in Southampton and (put) a few items of food in a basket. He (choose) a time when not many people (shop) in the store. He (find) a checkout where no one else (wait). When the cashier (check) the goods, the man (give) her a £10 note. When she (open) the till, the man quickly (snatch) all the money from it and (run) out of the store before she (realize) what (happen). At the time the security guard (stand) at the other end of the store. When staff (check) the records in the till, they (find) that the thief (take) only £4.37. The operation (cost) him £5.63, as he (leave) the £10 note behind. 

Answers:

A young man walked into a supermarket in Southampton and put a few items of food in a basket. He *chose a time when not many people were shopping in the store. He found a checkout where no one else was waiting. When the cashier had checked the goods, the man gave her a £10 note. When she opened the till, the man quickly snatched all the money from it and ran out of the store before she realized what was happening. At the time the security guard was standing at the other end of the store. When staff checked the records in the till, they found that the thief had taken only £4.37. The operation cost him £5.63, as he had left the £10 note behind. [*had chosen is possible according to context the choice of the time came before the arrival in the supermarket.]

Explanations
We use the past simple to talk about the past.
→ He snatched the money and ran away.

The past simple is used for the actions in the story, to tell us what happened next.

We use the past perfect for things before a past situation. [Past perfect means past of the past]

→ Staff found that the thief had taken only £4.37.

The theft of the money happened before they found out how much.

Past simple and past continuous

We often use these two forms together when a shorter action comes in the middle of a longer one. [In short, we often use past simple during past continuous]

→ I was waiting at the checkout when I noticed a strange-looking man.
→ He found a checkout where no one else was waiting.

Seeing the man came in the middle of the wait