Narrative tenses exercise: incident on a plane

Gap-fill exercise

Fill the gaps with the correct form of the verb in brackets. This is a story so you can choose from past simple, past continuous and past perfect tenses.

Press "Check" to check your answers.
Use the "[?]" button to get a clue.
Use the 'hint' button to get the first letter of the missing word.
Note that you will lose points if you ask for clues or hints!

This (happen) about five years ago. I (come) back home from Turkey where I (be) on holiday with some friends who (rent) a bungalow in the mountains not for from Ankara, the capital.

Anyway, we (sit) in the plane and (just / take) off when there (be) a loud bang from the right hand side of the plane and I could see a lot of smoke coming from one of the engines. Of course, everyone (start) looking around but the plane (carry) on flying normally. And then a few minutes later the pilot (come) on to the PA and said there was a problem with one of the engines and we’d have to return to the airport.

I felt pretty nervous, I can tell you, but I (try) to concentrate on my book, and about ten minutes later we (land) without any problems. We (have) to wait for about an hour and then we got back on the plane. Actually, it was a different plane and I was pretty relieved that it was.

Resources page for narrative tenses

Notes on narrative tenses

Gap fill exercises

Narrative tenses news story
Gap-fill exercise on narrative tenses based on a short news story about a girl who was kidnapped.

Narrative tenses exercise - James Bond
Narrative tenses gap-fill exercise based on a short passage from the James Bond story Diamonds are Forever.

Pakistan - China by bicycle
Personal account of a bike trip. Fifteen gaps. Past simple, past continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous.

Past simple and continuous - anecdote - the Donkey Dog
Short anecdote about a frightening experience, gapped for past continuous and past simple plus 'enormous' and 'the biggest'

Narrative tenses exercise: past perfect simple and continuous; past simple
Text about an engine failure during a flight. Advanced levels.

Present perfect, past simple and past continuous 01
Gapped dialogue. 'Have you ever...?' with a short anecdote as the reply using past simple and past continuous.

Present perfect, past simple and past continuous 02
Gapped dialogue. 'Have you ever...?' with a short anecdote as the reply using past simple and past continuous.

Quizzes - multiple choice / short answer

Narrative tenses quiz: a spooky experience
Ten-question multiple-choice quiz on narrative tenses based on a story about a strange experience in an old house.