Question

D) Fill in the blanks with a correct form, the PAST SIMPLE or the PAST CONTINUOUS:

1. He
2. They
3. Jane
4. As I .........
5. We .......
6. The customer
7. The barber
8. She ..
9. It ......
10. It .......
(talk) with Mary, when Mrs. Smith came in.
(study) two hours last night.
(sleep) when the telephone rang.
(walk) to the lab, I met my friend.
.. (watch) TV last night.
........ (pay) his cheque when he dropped his credit card.
............. (cut) my hair yesterday.
(dance) when she hurt her ankle.
.... (rain) hard when I got up.
(rain) hard last night.
E) Complete the sentences with the words in parentheses using the SIMPLE PAST or
the PAST PROGRESSIVE:​

Answer 1

For the exercise, the blanks are filled with the correct form of the Past Simple or Past Continuous tense, depending on whether the action was ongoing or completed. The Past Simple is used for completed actions, whereas the Past Continuous describes actions that were in progress at a specific moment.

Step-by-step explanation:

Filling in the blanks with the correct form of the Past Simple or the Past Continuous, we are considering the actions and whether they were ongoing at a specific time or completed actions in the past. Below are the answers:

1. He was talking (talk) with Mary, when Mrs. Smith came in.
2. They studied (study) two hours last night.
3. Jane was sleeping (sleep) when the telephone rang.
4. As I was walking (walk) to the lab, I met my friend.
5. We watched (watch) TV last night.
6. The customer was paying (pay) his cheque when he dropped his credit card.
7. The barber cut (cut) my hair yesterday.
8. She was dancing (dance) when she hurt her ankle.
9. It was raining (rain) hard when I got up.
10. It rained (rain) hard last night.

It's important to note that the Past Simple is often used for a series of completed actions in the past or a single completed action, while the Past Continuous is used to describe an action that was in progress at a specific moment in the past, often interrupted by another action.

Answer 2

1. He was talking with Mary, when Mrs. Smith came in.

2. They studied two hours last night.

3. Jane was sleeping when the telephone rang.

4. As I was walking to the lab, I met my friend.

5. We watched TV last night.

6. The customer was paying his cheque when he dropped his credit card.

7. The barber cut my hair yesterday.

8. She was dancing when she hurt her ankle.

9. It was raining hard when I got up.

10. It rained hard last night.

Step-by-step explanation:

Past Simple or Past Indefinite:

This tense is usually used when the sentence has an adverb of past tense, e.g last ----- , yesterday, ago.

The sentences No. 2, 5, 7 and 10 all have adverbs of past tense i.e yesterday or last.

Past Continuous:

We use this tense when talking about some event of past, that was taking place or happening at that specific time.

We also use Past Continuous tense when some event was already taking place or in the process, and some other even took place at that time. However if some event had already taken place some other event in the past, we use Past Perfect. Since there is no option to use Past Perfect Tense in this question, we can safely use Past Continuous Tense in sentences No. 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 9.