PAst Continuous

45. Fill in the gaps with the correct forms of the verb. Ask questions and give negative answers.

1. I … (watch) TV when she called. 2. When the phone rang, she … (write) a letter. 3. While we … (have) the picnic, it started to rain. 4. I … (listen) to my iPod, so I didn't hear the fire alarm. 5. You … (not listen) to me when I told you to turn the oven off. 6. While John … (sleep) last night, someone stole his car. 7. Last night at 6 PM, I … (eat) dinner. 8. At midnight, we … still (drive) through the desert. 9. Yesterday at this time, I … (sit) at my desk at work. 10. I … (study) while he … (make) dinner. 11. While Ellen … (read), Tim … (watch) television. 12. I … (not pay) attention while I … (write) the letter, so I made several mistakes. 13. Thomas … (not work), and I … (not work) either. 14. She … always (come) to class late. 15. He … constantly (talk). He annoyed everyone.

46. Fill in the gaps with the correct forms of the verb. Decide whether it is:

1. Interrupted action in the past

2. Action taking place at specific time

3. Parallel actions

4. Description of the scene

1. I … (not like) them because they … always (complain). 2. … you (listen) while he … (talk)? 3. Sammy … (wait) for us when we … (get off) the plane. 4. What … you (do) while you … (wait)? 5. While I … (write) the email, the computer suddenly … (go off). 6. They … (eat) dinner, … (discuss) their plans, and … (have) a good time. 7. What … you (do) when you … (break) your leg? 8. What … you (do) when the earthquake … (start)? 9. Jane … (be) at my house when you … (arrive). 10. I … (study) when she … (call). 11. While I … (study), she … (call). 12. When I … (walk) into the office, several people … busily (type), some … (talk) on the phones, the boss … (yell) directions, and customers … (wait) to be helped. One customer … (yell) at a secretary and (wave) his hands. Others … (complain) to each other about the bad service.

47. Complete the text below with appropriate tenses.

Last night, while I ... ¹(do) my homework, Angela ... ²(call). She said she ... ³(call) me on her cell phone from her biology classroom at UCLA. I asked her if she ... ⁴(wait) for class, but she said that the professor was at the front of the hall lecturing while she ... ⁵(talk) to me. I couldn't believe she ... ⁶(make) a phone call during the lecture. I … ⁷(ask) what was going on.

She said her biology professor was so boring that several of the students ... ⁸(sleep, actually) in class. Some of the students ... ⁹(talk) about their plans for the weekend and the student next to her ... ¹⁰(draw) a picture of a horse. When Angela ... ¹¹(tell) me she was not satisfied with the class, I ... ¹²(mention) that my biology professor was quite good and ... ¹³(suggest) that she switch to my class. While we … ¹⁴(talk), I ... ¹⁵(hear) her professor yell, "Miss, are you making a phone call?" Suddenly, the line went dead. I ... ¹⁶(hang) up the phone and went to the kitchen to make dinner. As I ... ¹⁷(cut) vegetables for a salad, the phone rang once again. It ... ¹⁸(be) Angela, but this time she wasn't sitting in class.

48. Tell your story from your past using Past Simple and Past Continuous.

49. Translate into Russian.

Luigi Galvani is famous for his discovery of current electricity. At that time of his discovery he was working at the University of Bologna. He was teaching anatomy. One day he was experimenting with the muscles and nerves of the frog. He was dissecting the frog when he noticed the contraction of its leg. The frog’s leg was touching the metal at the moment. After that Galvani conducted a number of experiments. He was trying to arrive at general laws of the relationship between the muscle contraction and the quantity of electric fluid. Finally Galvani came to the conclusion that animals possess in their nerves and muscles a subtle fluid quite analogous to ordinary electricity.