Fill in the blanks with an appropriate tense form.

It ………1…….. (is / are / was) nothing short of a miracle: A man with severe brain damage ………2……. (regain / regained / regaining) the ability to talk, eat, and move after doctors ………3…….. (implanted / were implanting / have implanted) an electrical device deep inside his brain.

The patient ………4……. (suffered / was suffering / has suffered) a brain injury 6 years ago. Since then he ……5………. (was / had) barely responded to the world around him. He couldn’t eat, so tubes ………6……. (delivers / delivered / delivering) nutrients to his body. When asked yes-no questions, he sometimes ………7……. (move / moved / were moving) his eyes and thumbs, but his responses were not consistent.

During a 10-hour operation, neurosurgeons ……8…….. (put / were putting / have put) two devices called electrodes deep within the center of the patient’s brain, in an area called the thalamus. The thalamus is a walnut shaped organ. It is the brain’s ‘grand central station’. It ……9……… (helps / is helping / helped) signals travel between the brain and the body’s sensory organs, such as the eyes, skin, and tongue. Electrodes ………10……. (transmit / are transmitting / have transmitted) electric currents. So the team of neurosurgeons involved in the surgery ……11……… (were proposing / proposed / have proposed) that transmitting currents deep in the brain would make the thalamus more active. And firing up the thalamus, they ……12…….. (have hoped / had hoped / hoped), would wake up the whole brain.

Answers

It is nothing short of a miracle: A man with severe brain damage regained the ability to talk, eat, and move after doctors implanted an electrical device deep inside his brain. The patient suffered a brain injury 6 years ago. Since then he had barely responded to the world around him. He couldn’t eat, so tubes delivered nutrients to his body. When asked yes-no questions, he sometimes moved his eyes and thumbs, but his responses were not consistent.

During a 10-hour operation, neurosurgeons put two devices called electrodes deep within the center of patient’s brain, in an area called the thalamus. The thalamus is a walnut shaped organ. It is the brain’s ‘grand central station’. It helps signals travel between the brain and the body’s sensory organs, such as the eyes, skin, and tongue. Electrodes transmit electric currents. So the team of neurosurgeons involved in the surgery proposed that transmitting currents deep in the brain would make the thalamus more active. And firing up the thalamus, they hoped, would wake up the whole brain.