Two walkers are reported _____1_____ gone missing near the summit of Snowdon,

the highest peak in Wales. John Watkins, aged 21 and Melanie McBrian, 19,
_____2_____ by nightfall, leading to fears that they _____3_____ forced to spend
the night on the mountain. Weather conditions, when the pair _____4_____ off
yesterday morning, were fairly good. By the afternoon, however, it had got much
worse. Thick clouds quickly _____5_____ over the region and there was a sharp drop
in temperature. The surface of the local lakes _____6_____ to freeze within a few
hours. Blizzards began in the evening, with a great deal of snow _____7_____ above
500 metres.

Friends of the two walkers _____8_____ that they _____9_____ from either of them.
They think their mobile phones _____10_____ unusable for some reason. Melanie’s
friend Janet Richards believes Melanie _____11_____ her to say they were alright if
her phone _____12_____ properly. Joe Hill, a friend of John’s, admits he
_____13_____ they _____14_____ an accident last night, but insists they have a lot
of experience walking in the mountains of Wales. They _____15_____ shelter if they
_____16_____ to stay on the mountain during last night. Mountain rescue teams,
which began looking for the couple early this morning, say that one or both of the
walkers _____17_____ and fallen in bad weather conditions, especially as neither of
them _____18_____ walking in the mountains in winter. The hope if, though, that
they _____19_____ safe before long, especially as the weather is forecast
_____20_____ within the next few hours.

1. to have

Beware that there are also tenses for infinitives.

Here, perfect tense is preferred in that the action “be gone” happens earlier than “be
reported”. The perfect tense of infinitive is usually used to signify that the sth has
occurred (to have gone) when another thing is being done (to be reported)

Two walkers are reported to have gone missing …

2. When going for the description of the anecdote, past tense is usually preferred.
The two walkers were gone…. They didn’t return by nightfall…, etc.

3. “May have used” is used to make conjuncture for situations in the past.

4. Among the four alternatives, set is a more reasonable one. “Had set” isn’t
plausible in that when using past perfect tense, a clear time signal in the past
always exists.
For example,
“The students had left the classroom.” (X)
“The students had left the classroom before the teacher came” (O)
“The teacher told her colleague that the students had left.” (O)

5. The coordinator conjunction “and” usually imply parallelism not just for parts of
speech, but also the tenses. In this sentence, “Thick clouds quickly spread over
the region and there was a sharp drop in temperature.” We have two clauses
with equivalent function (describe the scenery) and thus tenses (simple past
tense).

6. The time indicator “within a few hours” imply that the verb here is something
about to happen. Instead of future tense, we usually prefer using “continuous
tense” to express the urgency of the action.

7. Beware that there are also tenses for infinitives.

Blizzards happened simultaneous as the snow fell. Therefore, here among the
four alternatives, simple tense is preferred.
Other than tenses, we have to consider the voice of the verb, active or passive.
As the snow “falls”, but not “is fallen”. We should choose active voice instead of
the passive one.

8. For emotional words like surprise, here’s how they are used.
 Something surprises someone
 Someone is surprised
 Something is surprising.
Also, since “be surprised” isn’t an action considered to last long, we don’t used it
 for perfect tense.

9. It’s evident that the action “hadn’t heard” happens earlier than “were surprised”.
Therefore, past perfect tense is preferred.

10. “Might” is a better word to express speculation than “should” in this sentence,
especially a speculation with less certainty in voice. “Might + have V p.p.” is
generally used to express the speculation of a past situation.

11. You may struggle between “could have called” and “would have called”.

“Could have called”: If Janet believes Melanie “could have called” her, it’ll
mean Janet believed that Melanie was able to make the phone call but she chose
not to. However, it’ll be quite confusing because before this sentence it’s
mentioned that the friends believe there are some problems with the two
walkers’ phones. This implies that the friends think the two walkers would call
them if they got chances to.

However, “would have Vp.p.” frequently goes with the “if” clause to express the
consequences under certain given circumstances.

12. Past perfect tense or past perfect continuous tense is preferred here in that the
saying “the were alright” comes on the condition that the phone had been
working well until the point they had the saying. Past perfect continuous tense
(had been working) emphasizes the ongoing state.

13. If you scrutinize the paragraph carefully enough, (“They think”, “Janet believes
…”, etc.) present tense is use whenever the author reports the friends’ speech.
Also, “but”, the coordinator conjunction usually comes with parallel tenses.
14. “Could have had” here suggests a subjunctive mood.
15. Again, “would have Vp.p.” frequently goes with the “if” clause to express the
consequences under certain given circumstances.
16. “Be forced” comes before “would have found” chronologically.
17. I’m tired of explaining.
18. I’m tired of explaining.
19. Here the narrative stops. The author talks about a scenario in the future.