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Learner uses the present perfect to connect a past event to the present argument, and the past simple to close it off, choosing by relevance rather than by time.
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Six pairs. Relevance decides, except where a date is stated.
A paragraph arguing that the decline is the current problem. Emissions fell in 2015 or Emissions have fallen since 2015?
Closing a fact, connecting it, and the one hard rule.
Emissions fell in 2015.
A finished event in a finished period.
The reader files it as history and does not expect it to bear on your argument.
Twelve contexts. Two accept either form.
Sort each item into the correct category
Eight sentences with their context. One date forces the choice.
Arguing that the decline is the present problem. Emissions [fall] steadily since 2015.
A dated fact in a narrative. In 2015, emissions [fall] by nine per cent.
Counting attempts; the dates do not matter. The government [introduce] three separate schemes so far.
A finished event last year. The council [close] the libraries last June.
A complaint about the present. Nothing [change] since the review reported.
An old structure, and the date is stated. The bridge [build] in 1890 and still carries traffic.
An old reform whose effect is the whole argument, no date given. The reform [damage] access for poorer applicants.
A situation still unresolved. Applications [not recover] to their previous level.
One fact closed, one connected to the present.
Topic: a policy your country has changed in the last twenty years.
Sentence 1: close a past fact. Give it a date. Sentence 2: connect a change to the present situation. Give it no date.
The second sentence should bear on an argument you could go on to make.
One per line.
Say what the connection to now actually is.