Grammar Revision Grammar Training

27. Supply the correct form of the verbs given in brackets.

A.

Huge Hunt for Missile Smugglers

This week’s Heathrow security alert was sparked by high-quality intelligence that Islamist extremists with links to Al Qaeda have smuggled portable Sam-7 anti-aircraft missiles into Britain from Europe.

The intelligence, which (1) _______________ (to understand) (2) _______________ (to receive) at the weekend, sent shudders through anti-terrorist investigators. They (3) _______________ (not to receive) such specific and credible information of an imminent threat since the September 11 atrocities.

Police and the intelligence agencies regularly hear “background noise” (4) _______________ (to point) to possible attacks on the UK. But investigators insisted yesterday that the Heathrow warning (5) _______________ (to be) of quite a different order and that the response to it (6) _____________________ (modal verb/be) quick and uncompromising.

A surveillance operation (7) _______________ (to launch) and anti-terrorist investigators are hopeful of making arrests in the coming days. The police and MI5 believe there are about 40 Islamist extremists (8) _______________ (to base) in Britain who (9) _______________ (to link) to Al Qaeda, some of whom (10) _______________ (to monitor) for months due to concerns they (11) _______________________(modal verb/instruct) to carry out a terrorist strike.

In a briefing yesterday, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir John Stevens, hinted that Heathrow (12) _______________ (not to be) the only target in London, but refused (13) _______________ (to draw) on which other buildings in the capital (14) _______________ (modal verb/be) under threat. He also confirmed that closing Heathrow (15) _______________ (to consider).

There was also the possibility of troops (16) _______________ (to draft) into the capital, he said, but this (17) _______________ (not to be) imminent. However, Whitehall sources also said there almost certainly (18) _______________ (to be) more high-profile security operations (19) _______________ (to involve) the army as well as armed police.

(From ‘The Guardian’ February 13, 2003, abridged)

B.

Brazilian Gangs Step up Attacks on Police

Police in Brazil’s largest and wealthiest city, Sao Paulo, came under attack for the fifth day running yesterday in what officials believe to be a planned assault by a ruthless gang.

More than 25 police stations, as well as patrol cars and the home of an officer, (1) _______________ (to shoot) at since Sunday. The gang (2) _______________ (to terrorise) Sao Paulo and its outlying areas is known as the First Command of the Capital, or PCC by its Portuguese acronym.

Two police officers (3) _______________ (to kill) and at least 12 (4) _______________ (to wound) since Sunday. Officials believe the attacks (5) ____________________ (modal verb/order) by the PCC’s high command in jail.

Another police officer (6) __________________ (to shoot and kill) on Wednesday night in the town of Praia Grande, about an hour’s drive from Sao Paulo, but a police spokeswoman said that killing (7) _______________ (not to think) (8) _______________ (to link) to the gang.

Officials said the outbreak of violence (9) _________________ (modal verb/relate) to a request by the PCC for better living conditions at the high security prison. It (10) _______________ (to deny).

Once the gang chiefs give an order, “people outside prison tied to the PCC (11) _________________ (modal verb/do) something to show their servitude,” said Godofredo Billencourt, head of the Department for Investigation of Organized Crime.

(From ‘The Guardian’, abridged)

C.