FUTURE CONTINUOUS AND FUTURE PERFECT.

The future continuous (or future progressive) tense is used to indicate that future events  will continue for an expected length of time. We need to use  the construction will + be + a verb ending in ING. For example:

               “I will be meeting with Professor Jackson about my thesis project at 5pm tomorrow.”

Note that the verb “meet with somebody” is a duration verb; that is, those that take some time to happen. This is a characteristic of the future continuous. It is used with duration verbs. The sentence  indicates that the “meeting” is going to “take some time” before it is completed. No one knows how long, but it will not happen in an instant, all at once. This is another characteristic of the future continuous. Here are a few more  examples:

• Mr. Spencer will be attending the meeting in spite of  his busy schedule.
• I will be helping Albert to do the task.
• Tracy will be working on his research project all day tomorrow
• Will you be joining us at the meeting this afternoon?

WHEN DO WE USE THE FUTURE PERFECT TENSE

In contrast, the future perfect simple  is used to explain an activity that will be completed by a certain time in the future. It focuses on the completion of the action in the future. We need to use  the construction will + have + a verb in the past participle. For example:

• By 9pm tomorrow, I will have met  with Professor Jackson about my thesis project.

 Note that in order to describe these kinds of activities, we need to add time expressions such as “by the year 2025, by  December 15,  by then, by the time (something happens)t”. Here are a few examples:

• Do you think your parents will have already eaten dinner by the time we get home tomorrow?
• They’ll have probably eaten dinner by then, but they won´t have gone to sleep yet. They usually stay up late on Saturdays. 
• I do not think I will have finished all my homework by Saturday night. There is a lot to do!
• By December 10th this year, my parents will have been married for 30 years! We’ll celebrate!

TRY THE FOLLOWING QUIZ TO TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF FUTURE CONTINUOUS AND FUTURE PERFECT.  Choose the correct letter a, b or c to complete the sentences correctly.

.  Choose a, b or c to complete the following sentences correctly. 

READING COMPREHENSION AND VOCABULARY BUILDING 

THE KEYS TO HAPPINESS: PARTLY GENETIC, BUT YOU CONTROL THE REST

By ABC News May 10, 2022

(I)  Happiness and how it is achieved is a popular area of study for psychologists. Is there a "set point" that determines your level of happiness, regardless of your status in life? Is it something you have little power to change? For several decades psychologists have wrestled with that question, and in recent years many, if not most, have embraced the idea that we are born with a tendency to be happy, or sour, and it doesn't have much to do with our surroundings or lifestyle. One researcher compared it to height. Try as you may, you probably aren't going to get any taller. But a new study contends that happiness is very different from height or other genetically- determined characteristics. The study concludes that the "set point" is really a range, and we can move up and down on the happiness scale within that range.

(II)  All we have to do is keep our lives interesting, and be satisfied with what we already have. Sounds easy, and psychologist Kennon Sheldon of the University of Missouri, Columbia, argues that it is — although most of us may not succeed. "We all have good things happen to us, and they lift us for a while and then we kind of fall back where we started," Sheldon, lead author of a study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, said in a telephone interview. "We're trying to figure out how people can get more out of the good things that happen to them."  Sheldon and his coauthor, psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California, Riverside, have collaborated on several research projects over the last couple of decades. They have come up with a program that they think could help us inch our way up the happiness scale, and stay there longer, although there will always be a tendency to drop back to our personal "set points."

(III)  Their effort is an attempt to deal with an idea that has been kicking around for four decades, called "Hedonic Adaptation," or the "Hedonic Treadmill." That theory suggests that good things may move us up on the happiness scale, but in time the glow dims and we return to a point established chiefly by genetics. Bad things may move us down on the scale, but the impact of even traumatic experiences also diminishes over time, although some research suggests it's harder to forget the bad than remember the good.

(IV)  We deal as best as we can with bad things as a way of avoiding depression, and that forces us back up the happiness scale. And as for the good things, as soon as we get them, we want more, thus pushing us back down toward the median.

Sheldon and Lyubomirsky argue that simple lifestyle changes can help keep us a bit happier, "despite pessimism  from the current literature that the pursuit of happiness may be largely futile," as Lyubomirsky puts it. It all comes down to two words: variety and appreciation.

(V)  There's a new love in your life? Keep it alive by introducing new experiences and variety. That will keep the relationship fresh and rewarding, and, well, happy. Appreciate what you've got. "To appreciate something is to savor it, to feel grateful for it, to recognize that one might never have gotten it, or might lose it," the study says. Without that, you're likely to lose interest and cast about for something better, whether it's a new mate or a new car. It seems we are never satisfied, and that brings the happiness barometer down.

(VI)  The researchers tested 481 students over two semesters to measure their level of happiness and determine if savoring a good thing could last even a few weeks. In most cases, it didn't. The participants quickly returned to their regular levels of happiness. But some participants were able to maintain that elevated level of happiness by keeping the memory alive and appreciating what they already had.

For each question or statement, mark the correct answer.

Cambridge University Press. (2015). Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Fourth Edition.

Eastwood, J. (2019). Oxford Practice Grammar. Intermediate. Oxford University Press.

Hewings, M. (2013) Advanced Grammar in Use with Answers: A Self-Study Reference  and Practice Book for Advanced Learners of English. CUP

Murray, L. (2014) English Grammar.  Cambridge University Press.

Swan, M & Walter, C. (2016). Oxford English Grammar Course. Intermediate. Oxford University Press.

Images_Compra propia de licencias de banco de imágenes de Pixton y Pngtree, exentas de derechos de autor. https://www-es.pixton.com/ & https://es.pngtree.com/free-backgrounds.

Reading Text retrieved and adapted from "The Real Cost of Cheap Fashion" by Laura Anastasia. Published in THE NEW YORK TIMES UPFRONT, September 4, 2017. Copyright © 2017 Scholastic Inc. Reproduced by permission. Unless otherwise noted, this content is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license_ https://www.commonlit.org/es/texts/fyc-the-real-cost-of-cheap-fashion

• All practice exercises and charts were  written by Connie Reyes Cruz_2022_ENES- LEÓN-UNAM
• Audio version performed by Kimberly and Matt_Compra propia de licencia de uso de voces en Voicemaker, exenta de derechos de autor. https://voicemaker.in/ _Connie Reyes Cruz_2022_