Question

Bob ___________ (to listen) to music when the door bell rang. listen was listening 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 Paris.’ 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 a new 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 ‘Bob ___________ (to listen) to music when the door bell rang.’ we are given the context ‘…when the door bell rang.’ and we understand that the ring of the door bell interrupted some ‘surrounding’ situation: some action was happening before the ring of the door bell - a longer action in the past was interrupted. Therefore, we are to choose ANSWER 4 – ‘was listening’.

Accepted Answer

was listened listened d

Question	Bob ___________ (to listen) to music when the door bell rang.
A	was listened
B	listen
C	listened
D	was listening
Answer	d
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 Paris.’ 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 a new 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 ‘Bob ___________ (to listen) to music when the door bell rang.’ we are given the context ‘…when the door bell rang.’ and we understand that the ring of the door bell interrupted some ‘surrounding’ situation: some action was happening before the ring of the door bell - a longer action in the past was interrupted. Therefore, we are to choose ANSWER 4 – ‘was listening’.

Past Continuous Door Bell Action Tense Simple Describes