Past Continuous Tense Quiz

Use the past continuous tense or simple past tense as appropriate.

1 My brother and sister ………… playing tennis at 11am yesterday.

2 …………. you still working at 7pm last night?

3 At 8.30am today I … driving to work.

4 We ………… sleeping at 11pm.

5 Why ………. he having lunch at 4pm?

6 I ………. (meet) John in town yesterday. He ………. (shop).  

7 Mary ……….. (wait) for me when I ………………. (arrive).  

8 ………….. (he/have) a shower when I ……………. (call)?  

9 I ……………. (not/know) what to say ………….. he asked that.  

10 The telephone rang …………. we ………….. (watch) TV.  

2.Put the verbs into the correct form (past progressive).

1.When I phoned my friends, they were playing monopoly.

2.Yesterday at six I was preparing dinner.

3.The kids were playing in the garden when it suddenly began to rain.

4.I was practicing the guitar when he came home.

5.We were not cycling all day.

6.While Aaron was working in his room, his friends were swimming in the pool.

7.I tried to tell them the truth but they were not listening .

8.What were you doing yesterday?

9.Most of the time we were sitting in the park.

10.I was studying while he was making dinner.

Exercise 3

1) She was playing hockey.

2) They were swimming in the pool.

3) It was raining.

4) We were listening to music.

5) The mobile was ringing.

6) The students were texting.

7) Max was dancing with two girls.

8) I was waiting in front of the shop.

9) The cat was sleeping in the basket.

10) He was repairing Gerry's bike.

Verb Tense Exercise 4

Simple Past / Past Continuous

Last night, while I was doing my homework, Angela (call) called. She said she (call) was calling me on her cell phone from her biology classroom at UCLA. I asked her if she (wait) was waiting for class, but she said that the professor was at the front of the hall lecturing while she (talk) was talking to me. I couldn't believe she (make) was making a phone call during the lecture. I asked what was going on.

She said her biology professor was so boring that several of the students (sleep, actually) were actually sleeping in class. Some of the students (talk) were talking about their plans for the weekend and the student next to her (draw) was drawing a picture of a horse. When Angela (tell) told me she was not satisfied with the class, I (mention) mentioned that my biology professor was quite good and (suggest) suggested that she switch to my class.

While we were talking, I (hear) heard her professor yell, "Miss, are you making a phone call?" Suddenly, the line went dead. I (hang) hung up the phone and went to the kitchen to make dinner. As I (cut) was cutting vegetables for a salad, the phone rang once again. It (be) was Angela, but this time she wasn't sitting in class.