PAST TENSES DRILL: Rosie Ruiz

PAST TENSES

PAST SIMPLE : Finished actions in the past. (worked, stopped, went, had, etc)
PAST CONTINUOUS: To describe an action in progress in the past. (was/were + ing)
PAST PERFECT: When you’re talking about the past and then you want to talk about an earlier past action. (had + past participle)

GRAMMAR EXERCISE (1)

Complete the gaps with the verbs from the list using past simple, past perfect or past continuous:

1. come 2. win 3. become 4. notice 5. sweat 6. investigate 7. see 8. say 9. see 10. take 11. finish 12. cheat

ROSIE RUIZ

On April 21 1980, 23-year-old Rosie Ruiz _________ first in the Boston Marathon. She ________ the race in the third-fastest time ever recorded for a female runner (two hours, 31 minutes, 56 seconds).
However, the organizers _________ suspicious, because they __________ that when she crossed the finishing line she __________ at all.
When they __________ found out that none of the course officials __________ her passing checkpoints. Other competitors didn’t remember seeing her at all.
Then a few spectators __________ that they ___________
Ruiz join the race just for the final kilometer. She ha simply sprinted from there to the finish line.
The marathon organizers __________ away Ruiz’s medal and gave it to Jacqueline Gareau, who __________ second in the race.
Later they also found out that Ruiz __________ in the New York Marathon, the race she used to qualify for the Boston event, earlier in the same year but in a different way…

GRAMMAR EXERCISE (2)

Read the following report about Rosie Ruiz and highlight the past perfect tenses.

Rosie Ruiz Vivas (born 1953, Havana, Cuba) is a famous Cuban American Marathon runner who on April 21, 1980 came in as the first place female competitor in the 84th Boston Marathon, but who was later stripped of her title when it was found that she had cheated.

Ruiz completed the marathon with a record time of 2:31:56. However, race officials determined that she had not completed the entire 26.2-mile course, but had registered for the race and later jumped in from the crowd and sprinted to the finish.

There was suspicion from the beginning, as no one had seen her running earlier in the race, she did not appear in videotape footage, and some members of the crowd reported witnessing her run into the race in the last mile. In addition, her time of 2:31:56 was an unusual improvement, more than 25 minutes ahead of her reported time in the New York City Marathon six months earlier. When asked by a reporter why she didn't seem fatigued after the grueling race, she said, "I got up with a lot of energy this morning."

Soon, race officials learned that Ruiz had possibly cheated in the New York marathon in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Freelance photographer Susan Morrow reported meeting her on the subway during the New York race and accompanying her from the subway to the race. She lost touch with Ruiz after that, but came forward when the news of Ruiz's dubious Boston win broke. According to Morrow, she met Ruiz on the subway and together they walked a distance to the finishing area, where Ruiz identified herself as an injured runner. She was escorted to a first aid station and volunteers marked her down as having completed the marathon, thus qualifying her for the Boston Marathon.

Eventually, race officials decided to strip Ruiz of her Boston Marathon title and named Jacqueline Gareau of Montreal, Canada the women's winner, with a time of 2:34:28. New York Marathon director Fred Lebow had rescinded Ruiz's 1979 finish earlier that week, determining that Ruiz had not completed her first marathon, either.