This question tests your understanding of tenses in English grammar, specifically the sequence of events in a past narrative. The key phrase is "As soon as I ___ for the goods somebody _____ me."

The word "As soon as" indicates that one action happened immediately after another. Both actions are in the past, as the sentence starts with "I was in the supermarket."

Let's analyze the sequence:

Step 1: The first action is paying for the goods.

Step 2: The second action (somebody pushing me) happens immediately after the first action is completed.

To show that the first action was completed before the second one began, we use the Past Perfect tense for the first action. The Past Perfect tense is formed with had + past participle (e.g., had paid). The second action, which follows, is in the Simple Past tense (e.g., pushed).

Therefore, the correct sentence is: I was in the supermarket. As soon as I had paid for the goods somebody pushed me.

Let's see why the other options are incorrect:

• have paid / pushed: "Have paid" is Present Perfect tense, which is used for actions that happened at an unspecified time in the past or continue to the present. It does not fit the clear sequence of two past events described here.
• pay / will push: "Pay" is Simple Present and "will push" is Simple Future. These tenses are not used to describe a story that is entirely set in the past.
• have paid / is pushing: "Have paid" (Present Perfect) is mismatched with "is pushing" (Present Continuous), and neither correctly places the actions in the past narrative.

Related Topic: Tenses

Tenses indicate the time of an action (past, present, future) and its state (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous). The choice of tense depends on the relationship between the time of the action and the time of speaking, or the relationship between two or more actions.

Past Perfect Tense (had + past participle) is used to describe an action that was completed before another action took place in the past. It establishes a clear order of events.

Important Formula

Sequence of two past events:

$\text{Action 1 (first, completed)}\to \text{Past Perfect (had + V3)}\text{Action 2 (later)}\to \text{Simple Past (V2)}$