Supply the modal verbs can, could, to be able to, or managed to

1) A good 1500-metre runner … run the race in under four minutes.

2) Bill is so unfit he … run at all!

3) Our baby is only nine months and he … stand up.

4) When I was younger, I … speak Italian much better than I … now.

5) …she speak German well?- No, she … speak German at all.

6) He … draw or paint at all when he was a boy, bat now he is a famous artist.

7) After weeks of training, I … swim a length of the baths underwater.

8) It took a long time, but in the end Tony … save enough to buy his car.

9) Did you buy any fresh fish in the market?- No, I … get any.

10) For days the rescuers looked for the lost climbers in the snow. On the forth day they saw them and … reach them without too much trouble.

2. Rewrite these sentences using the modal verb can/could.

11) Do you see that man over there?

12) I smell something burning.

13) I understood what he said.

14) Did you understand what he said?

15) I don’t hear anything!

Rewrite these sentences so that each sentence contains the modal verb can and the meaning remains the same.

16) I knew how to skate before I was five.

17) I hope one day we will meet again in more favourable circumstances.

18) It is still very cold here in March.

19) Some supermarket beef tends to be rather tough.

20) In the end we managed to communicate with sign language.

21) If you don’t feel you’ll make a contribution, just say so.