Past continuous and past simple - interrupted activities
Past continuous and past simple - interrupted activities 过去进行式和过去简单式
English speakers often use the past simple and past continuous together to say that something happened in the middle of something else. In this episode of The Flatmates, Alice says:
'...when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone...'
This means that Paul started talking on the phone before Alice arrived at the restaurant, and he was still talking when she entered the restaurant.
The order of the clauses is not important here. It is possible to change the clause order without changing the meaning of the sentence.
'...he was talking to somebody on the phone when I arrived at the restaurant...'
'When', 'while' and 'as' 表时间之关系
'when', 'while' and 'as' are important time markers. They can be used with the past simple or the past continuous part of the sentence.
'...when I arrived at the restaurant, he was talking to somebody on the phone...'
'...he was talking to somebody on the phone when I arrived at the restaurant...'
'As I was walking down the street, I met my old teacher.'
'I met my old teacher as I was walking down the street.'
'While the teacher was talking, two of the students fell asleep.'
'Two of the students fell asleep while the teacher was talking.'
Past simple 过去简单式
The past simple is usually used when things happen one after another.
She got up, had a shower, got dressed , made breakfast and went to work.
Stative verbs 静态动词
Some verbs are not normally used in the continuous tense. These are often verbs associated with thoughts and feelings such as: believe, know, understand, want, think, feel, like, love, smell, taste, hear.
In this example, 'think' means 'to have an opinion':
I am thinking that this book is very expensive - wrong
I think that this book is very expensive - right
However, if the verb describes an action , the continuous tense can be used. In this example, 'think' refers to an activity:
My mum called just when I was thinking about her.
For more information about stative verbs (also known as state verbs) see The Flatmates episode 4
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a.连续不断的；延长的 (初中英语单词)
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