Hello, I'm new but I see that here you help people. Can you help me with this exercise? If you can also explain why please?

Put the verbs in brackets into the correct past tense.

The moon ............... (shine) its light on the still waters of the lake as the animals ............... (hunt) for their dinner in the forest. In the tiny log cabin, Jack Cagney ................. (sit) in front of the fire, trying to warm his cold feet. It ............... (snow) earlier that day and Jack ......... (chop) wood in preparation for the long winter ahead. Suddenly, he ............. (hear) a strange noise. He quickly ............. (put on) his boots, .............. (grab) a torch and .................... (go) outside. He ........... (shine) the torch into the darkness but ............ (see) nothing. A few seconds later, he .................. (hear) the noise again. With his heart thumping, he ............ (climb) the ladder leading to the roof. When he .............. (reach) the top, he .............. (see) the huge eyes staring at him. Realising what it ................... (be), he ................ (chuckle) and ............. (sigh). "Abigail! You nearly ............ (scare) me to death!" The owl, which Jack ............ (nurse) back to health after she ............ (break) her leg, .............. (hoot) and .......... (flutter) her wings.

I know it's far not as it should be, but I usually do my homework by myself, this is just too difficult for me. Anyway, if you really want me to have a try, I can guess - but it would be just pure guessing. As I really want to understand such exercises, I need to be directed in a good way.

Thank you very much!

Well the exercise seems easy enough, basically you need to put the words in brackets into the past tense. So to start you off, I will do a couple for you, and you can fill in the rest and post it here, and I can help you some more if needed:



The answers above are in bold. You should be able to figure out the rest. You can also use google to help you e.g. type in shine past tense and you can find the past tense for that word and an explanation easy enough.

Are you shure it's all gonna be in past simple tense...?
Well, I will try then.


The moon shone its light on the still waters of the lake as the animals hunted for their dinner in the forest. In the tiny log cabin, Jack Cagney sat in front of the fire, trying to warm his cold feet. It snowed earlier that day and Jack chopped wood in preparation for the long winter ahead. Suddenly, he heard a strange noise. He quickly put on his boots, grabbed a torch and went outside. He shone the torch into the darkness but saw nothing. A few seconds later, he heard the noise again. With his heart thumping, he climbed the ladder leading to the roof. When he reached the top, he saw the huge eyes staring at him. Realising what it was, he chuckled and sighed. "Abigail! You nearly scared me to death!" The owl, which Jack nursed back to health after she broke her leg, hooted and fluttered her wings.

Basing on your prompt it should be like this but I am pretty shure it isn't right. It would be too easy...
Well,wes are you sure it's correct?

Sorry for such a long reply, but I'm gonna help you out with this now.

The moon was shining its light on the still waters of the lake as the animals were hunting for their dinner in the forest. In the tiny log cabin, Jack Cagney was sitting in front of the fire, trying to warm his cold feet. It had been snowing earlier that day and Jack chopped wood in preparation for the long winter ahead. Suddenly, he heard a strange noise. He quickly put on his boots, grabbed a torch and went outside. He shone the torch into the darkness but saw nothing. A few seconds later, he heard the noise again. With his heart thumping, he climbed the ladder leading to the roof. When he had reached the top, he saw the huge eyes staring at him. Realising what it was, he chuckled and sighed. "Abigail! You nearly scared me to death!" The owl, which Jack had been nursing back to health after she had broken her leg, hooted and fluttered her wings.

Well Setris's answer is also correct, and if you don't want the simple past tense, then best to go with his answer. However, both are correct.