Упражнения и задания по грамматике

12. Past Continuous


Use

1. 
   action in the middle of happening at a stated past time
   

He was playing tennis at 4.30 yesterday.

2. 
   past action in progress interrupted by another past action. The longer action is in the Past Continuous, the shorter action is in the Past Simple.
   

While I was get­ting dressed the bell rang.

3. 
   two or more simultaneous past actions
   

While I was sunbathing, Tim was swimming.
or background description to events in a story
She was flying to Paris. The sun was shining...


Time expressions: while, when, as etc


12.1* Underline the correct form:

1. While he took / was taking a bath, Archimedes discovered / was discovering the principles of density and buoyancy.

2. When Edouard Benedictus, a French scientist, worked / was working in his laboratory, he dropped / was dropping a glass bottle which had some plastic inside – and invented / was inventing safety glass.
3. Columbus arrived / was arriving in America while he tried / was trying to reach the Far East.
4. Alexander Fleming discovered / was discovering penicillin by accident while he looked / was looking at some old experiments.
5. While Hiram Bingham climbed / was climbing in the mountains of Peru in 1911, he discovered / was discovering the lost city of Macchu Picchu.
6. While Isaac Newton sat / was sitting under an apple tree, an apple fell / was falling on his head, and he understood / was understanding gravity.
7. While Dr Harry Coover tried / was trying to invent a new kind of plastic, he made / was making a very soft substance which stuck / was sticking things together. It was Superglue.
8. While he observed / was observing the Moon through his telescope, Galileo realized / was realizing that it had mountains and craters.


12.2* Complete the sentence with the past simple or past continuous form of the verb in brackets: