Question

My cat _____________ (to play) with a toy when I called it. played has played The most common use of the past continuous tense is to talk about something that was happening around a particular time in the past: ‘In 2015 she was working in New York.’ The past continuous is formed from the past tense of be (was/were) with the -ing form of the verb.The past continuous and the past simple are often used together. When this happens, the past continuous describes a longer, ‘surrounding’ action or situation and the past simple describes the action or events: It was raining hard when we left the office. Often, the ‘action’described by the past simple tense interrupts the ‘situation’ described by the past continuous tense – when anew action happens in the middle of another action: Helen was talking to Max, when she heard Alex’s voice.The past continuous describes ‘situations’ that go on for some time – ‘raining’ and ‘talking’ but the past simple describes ‘actions’ that happen quickly – ‘left’ and ‘heard’.In the test sentence ‘My cat _____________ (to play) with a toy when I called it.’ we are given the context ‘…when I called it.’ and we understand that my call interrupted some ‘surrounding’ situation: some action was happening before my call - a longer action in the past was interrupted. Therefore, we are to choose ANSWER 1 – ‘was playing’.

Accepted Answer

was playing play a

Question	My cat _____________ (to play) with a toy when I called it.
A	was playing
B	played
C	play
D	has played
Answer	a
Remark	The most common use of the past continuous tense is to talk about something that was happening around a particular time in the past: ‘In 2015 she was working in New York.’ The past continuous is formed from the past tense of be (was/were) with the -ing form of the verb.The past continuous and the past simple are often used together. When this happens, the past continuous describes a longer, ‘surrounding’ action or situation and the past simple describes the action or events: It was raining hard when we left the office. Often, the ‘action’described by the past simple tense interrupts the ‘situation’ described by the past continuous tense – when anew action happens in the middle of another action: Helen was talking to Max, when she heard Alex’s voice.The past continuous describes ‘situations’ that go on for some time – ‘raining’ and ‘talking’ but the past simple describes ‘actions’ that happen quickly – ‘left’ and ‘heard’.In the test sentence ‘My cat _____________ (to play) with a toy when I called it.’ we are given the context ‘…when I called it.’ and we understand that my call interrupted some ‘surrounding’ situation: some action was happening before my call - a longer action in the past was interrupted. Therefore, we are to choose ANSWER 1 – ‘was playing’.

Past Continuous Action Tense Simple Describes I Called