Final answer:
The sentence requires the past continuous tense to describe both the girls skipping rope and the boys doing push-ups, resulting in 'were skipping' and 'were doing' respectively. These describe simultaneous ongoing actions in the past when the subject appeared.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question provided requires the correct use of verbs in a past continuous tense for the first blank and past simple tense for the second. This is identifiable by the context of the sentence which sets a scene in the past where two activities were happening simultaneously. The correct way to complete the sentence is: "When he appeared at the PE lesson, the girls were skipping rope while the boys were doing push-ups."
Here is a step-by-step explanation of how each blank should be filled:
- For the first blank, we use the past continuous tense 'were skipping' because this describes an action ('the girls skipping rope') that was already in progress at the time the boy appeared.
- For the second blank, the past continuous tense 'were doing' is used because it describes another ongoing action ('the boys doing push-ups') that was happening at the same time as the first action.
The sentence demonstrates the use of past continuous tense to describe two actions that were happening simultaneously in the past. In teaching, it would be useful to provide more examples and explain the structure of the past continuous tense, which is 'was/were + present participle (verb+ing)'.