Choose the correct form.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 682.

Is the past continuous used correctly?

Is the past simple used correctly?

AND THE PAST CONTINUOUS

PRACTICE WITH THE PAST SIMPLE

a. We use this tense to talk about actions and situations in the past.

The development committee arranged everything.

He decided to invest his capital in the new
enterprise two years ago.

b. The past simple denotes an action performed within a period of time which is already over. The time of action may be indicated by adverbial of past time (yesterday, a week ago, last year, ... etc.)

Some years ago my parents couldn't afford a loan

to cover my education.

c.The past simple denotes a succession of past actions.

The buyers saw the display of the machines and sent

an inquiry to the firm.

d. When “who”, “what”, or “which” is the subject of a past simple question, we do not use “did”.

Who made a choice between two possible uses of resources?

a.The past continuous is often used after such phrases as “the whole day“, “all day long”.

They were discussing a very important project the whole day.

b. The past continuous is used to denote an action thought of as a continual process. In this case the adverbs “always”, “ever”, “constantly” are used. The past continuous is to be found in emotional speech.

The prices were constantly rising!
One couldn't keep up with them!

Exercise 1

e.g. They opened / were opening a new account last week.

1. The capital resources included/were including a variety of tools and machines.

2. The society understood / was understanding the true costs of making one decision rather than another.

3. He was always losing /always lost his money when he provided capital for new businesses.

4. Formally the term “market“ denoted / was denoting a place set aside for buying and selling.

5. Herealised / was realising the real costs of things and found the right solution.

6. When Johnstudied / was studying at college he had to make very important decisions.

7. People who were willing to sell a commodity contacted / were contacting people who were willing to buy it.

8. The engineers discussed / were discussing the scheme at the meeting the whole day.

9. The manager of the repair department explained / was explaining the poor quality of the work by the lack of the qualified workmen.

10. He spoke / was always speaking too fast. I could hardly understand half of what he said then.

11. When sheread / was reading a new labour contract, she found it necessary to increase wages.

12. Mother stared / was staring out of the window; she seemed deep in thought.

Exercise 2