Past Simple or Past Continuous (Tarea 1)

PAST CONTINUOUS (I WAS DOING)	PAST SIMPLE (I DID)
Use the past continuous: Use the past continuous tense to talk about an activity that was in progress at a particular time in the past. We also use the past continuous with the past simple when a shorter action (in the past simple) interrupts a longer action ( in the past continuous).	Use the past simple: To describe an action that started and finished in the past. We often include a time expression in the same sentence, for example, yesterday, three days ago, last Monday.

WHILE AND WHEN WHILE: significa mientras, se usa para indicar que mientras hacías una acción otra persona está realizando otra a la vez. Ejemplo: I were living a shower while my mom cooked. WHEN:  Significa cuando, se usa cuando una acción se ve interrumpida en el pasado. Ejemplo: I was watching TV when the phone rang.

EXERCISES

1/ Choose the correct answers.

• My dad came/ was coming home while I watched / was watching TV.
• Tom had / was having his supper when the phone rang / was ringing.
• My mother shopped / was shopping in the city when she heard / was hearing the ambulance.
• Sue walked / was walking home when she met / was meeting her friend.
• When the ambulance arrived / was arriving, the injured people lay / were lying on the ground.
• The fire started / was starting while I was sleeping / slep.
• When my friends were calling / called. I was doing / did my homework.
• I visited / was visiting my grandparents when the accident happened / was happening.

2/ Complete the sentences with while or when:

• I was riding my bike ___________ the rain began.
• Jane was buying shoes ____________ Nancy was looking for a present.
• The computer broke __________ I was trying to send an e-mail.
• _____________ Lindo lost the camera, she was playing in the park.
• _____________ he was calling the police, the robber ran away.
• The students were talking loudly ________ the teacher arrive.

3/ Complete the sentences with the correct form of the verbs in brackets. Use the Past Simple or Past Continuous.

Policeman: What _________ you ____________(do) last night at twenty to eleven?

Thief: I _____________ (watch) television.

Policeman: What _________you _________ (watch)?

Thief: Let me see. I ____________(watch) Beverly Hills 90210.

Policeman: I don’t think you ____________(watch) TV at 22:40 last night. Beverly Hills _____________(not be) on last night. At 22:40 last night, you ____________(rob) Mrs Baker’s house. A neighbour ________(see) you.

Thief: All right, I confess. I _____________(rob) Mrs. Baker’s house.

Policeman: Why __________you __________(rob) her house?

Thief: I ____________(rob) her house because I _____________(need) the money.

Policeman: What _____ you __________ (need) the money for?

Thief: I’ve got a large family and my father doesn’t earn enough money. I _____________(try) to help them.

4/ Complete the sentences. Make the sentences true for you.

• When I arrived home last night, _____________________________________
• While I was sleeping, _____________________________________________
• At 7 pm last night, _______________________________________________
• Last weekend, ___________________________________________________
• While the teacher was talking, _______________________________________

5/ Complete the sentences using the Past Simple or Past Continuous.

Dawn __________ (go) to London yesterday, and she ___________ (have) a strange experience. She ____________(wait) for a train when she ____________ (see) a very nervous man. He ___________ (follow) people, and he _____________(look) at their bags in a strange way.

Dawn _________ (walk) across to the man and they ____________(stop) him. He ___________ (hide) another bag and an expensive  camera inside his coat, so the police ___________(arrest) him.

6/  Circle the correct form of the verbs in the questions.

• What time were you seeing / did you see him Dawn.
• What was he wearing / did he wear?
• Did he stop/ Was he stopping when the police shouted.
• Where you reading / Did you read your book when you saw him?
• How many police officers did you tell / were you telling?
• Were they arresting / Did they arrest the man?

7/ Compete the text. Use the past simple or the past continuous form of the verbs in the box.

Come     wait      buy     look     hear     read

It was about eight o’clock in the evening, and I ______________ for my train. The train was late, so I ____________________ a magazine at the book shop. I _____________ the magazine when I _______________ the information about my train. I _____________ the clock and it was nine o’clock. Then, the man ______________into the station. He was very nervous.

8/  Write the complete sentences. Use the past simple or the past continuous.   

PAST CONTINUOUS

The mountain climbers / climb / Everest. _____________________________________ Amanda/ think / about her boyfriend. _____________________________________ Charles and his friends / look / at the stars. _____________________________________

PAST SIMPLE

They / see / a UFO in the sky. _____________________________________ They / discovered / a dead alien in the ice. _____________________________________ He / telephone / her. _____________________________________

9/ Join sentences 1-3 with a-c from exercise 2. Use when or while.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10/ Complete the sentences. Use the past simple or the past continuous from of the verbs in brackets.

• Colonel Howard – Bury _______________ (see) several large dark creatures while he ________________(try) to climb the North Face of Everest.
• While the first Europeans ______________(explore) Everest in 1921, they ____________ (see) creatures that looked like large apes.
• Thomas Slick ______________(investigate) the Yeti in Tibet in 1957, when some Tibetans ____________(tell) him that Yetis had killed five people from their village.
• A Sasquatch _______________(kidnap) Albert Ostmann while he ____________(look for) gold in 1924.
• In 1941, while the Russians ___________(fight) the Germans in World War 2, they ______________ (find) an Almas and they ________________(shoot) it!

11/ Complete the text. Use the past simple or past continuous.

In 1811, the Canadian David Thompsons ____________(travel) across Rocky Montains when he _________________(discover) huge footprints in the snow. They were about 35 cm long, so Bigfoot has got very big feet!

In 1967, the American Roger Pattinson ___________________ (make) a film of a Sasquach, but many people don’t believe his film is real.

More recently, some people have said that there are links between Bigfoot and UFO’s.

In 1973, two girls _______________ (wait) next to the road for a lift when they _____________(see) a huge hairy creature. There was a red light coming from its eyes. The girls were scared and ______________(run) away. The same night, other people in the area said that they saw UFOs in the sky. A month later, a young man and two boys ____________________(look for) UFOs when they suddenly ______________(find) one. While they _____________(watch) it, two creatures like tall apes _________________(start) to run at them from near UFO. They shot at the taller of the two apes, and the UFO suddenly ________________ (disappear). The apes _________________ (walk) away into the night.