Photo: Reuters -Egypt's Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass stands beside damaged artifacts in the Egyptian Museum, located near the opposition stronghold of Tahrir Square, in Cairo
While you read the article, how about filling in the blanks with the right tense?
Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities minister ……………… (say) Sunday that during the anti-government protests that …………… (erupt) in nearby Tahrir Square late last month
looters ………………….. (steal) several artifacts from Cairo's Egyptian Museum .
Zahi Hawass …………………… (explain) that an inventory of the world-renowned museum's collection ……………………………(find) that 18 objects …………………….. (miss), including a wooden statue of King Tutankhamun being carried by a goddess.
Looters …………………………. (break) into the museum on January 28 and …………………………… (damage) about 70 objects.
The Egyptian army and police ………………..........…….. (soon question) a group of looters already in custody about the missing artifacts.
Minister Hawass no longer ……………………. (consider) Egypt's museums and archaeological treasures to be safe, reversing his statement earlier in the month that authorities had secured all historical sites.
The Egyptian Museum ………………………….. (contain) more than 100,000 artifacts. The gold funerary mask of the teenage pharaoh Tutankhamun ……….. (be) the best known piece.
adapted from VOA and Reuters
