There was nothing much to do in the evening but read中read是过去式吗

There was nothing much to do in the evening but read中read不是过去式，是read的原型。 这里用了省略句，补全是There was nothing much to do in the evening but to read books。 意思是晚上没有什么事要做，只能看书。英语中常用省略来减少句子的重复。这里应用到的语法是“前有do，后省to”。是省略的一种情况。例如： There is nothing to do but (to) obey the