Practicing Past Tense Modal Verbs with The Darwin Awards

Have you heard of the Darwin Awards? If not, you can go to the Darwin Awards website to read all about them.

WARNING: the Darwin Awards are not for the faint of heart! The Darwin Awards website talks about people who have died in a way that is not very respectful. The stories on the website find humor in stupid situations that often caused someone's death. It is a very dark kind of humor that may be offensive to some people. If you think you may be offended by this website, then please do not continue with this activity.

We read about some Darwin Award winners and then wrote our own advice to them in order to practice using past tense modal verb forms. With most modal meanings, you have a choice of several forms that may work. However, the hard part is knowing which forms you can choose from for each situation.

Read the advice below. Try to choose a correct modal verb form from each drop-down list. However, there is more than one correct answer for most of the blanks. After you find one correct answer, then try some other forms to see if they are also correct. Try to find all of the correct answers.

My Darwin Award Winner:

Workin' at the Car Wash

My Advice to Him/Her:

This guy lit the lighter. He used a lamp or a light from the street. He called some more people to help him, if he wasn't sure about what to do. Of course, he been more informed about the risks when he was working on car wash. He asked his boss what to do, when he see clearly.

My Darwin Award Winner:

Man Killed by Bees

My Advice to Him/Her:

I think the Darwin Awards should help people realize what could happen if you are doing things spontaneously. These people killed themselves just because of this. These stories look very funny, but unfortunately they are true. It would not have happened like this to the person about whom I wrote. He could have just asked for some professional help. In my opinion, the website might have helped at least a few people to change their plans.