4 OPTIMISE YOUR GRAMMAR | Higher A2

Past continuous, linking words
1 Look at the picture and complete the
sentences using the past continuous form
of the verbs in the box.
What was happening at
2 pm yesterday?
Eva
Bob
Maria
carry | not get on | not rain | ride | write
1 It was dry and sunny and it 
2 Maria              her shopping.
3 Jim              his bicycle.
4 Eva              a text message.
5 Bob              a bus.
2 Match the first half of the sentence to the
second and link them with one of the words
in the box. You can use the words more
than once.
when | but | and | because
1 The bus was delayed  
2 We crossed the road  
3 The children were swimming  
4 I didn’t want to go home  
5 The restaurant was expensive   to Romania. We flew to Bucharest and then took
a) I was having a great time.
b) their parents were sunbathing.
c) the food wasn’t very good.
d) there was lots of traffic on the road.
e) the traffic lights changed to red.
Past simple and past continuous
3 Tick the two correct sentences. Underline
the mistakes in the other sentences and
correct them.
1 The train left the station while we were buying
our tickets.              amazing. All the food came from the village
2 The waiter took our order and then was bringing
us our drinks.              best holiday of my life.
3 We weren’t seeing the Picasso painting while
we were walking around the museum.
4 It stopped raining while they were playing
football.             
5 She was walking home and then she cooked
dinner.             
4 Use the prompts to write sentences using
Jim the past simple and past continuous.
1 I / read / newspaper / when / start / raining

2 they / have / lunch / and then / go / to the
beach

3 while / Ian / visit / museum / someone / take /
his phone

4 what / you / do / when / the fire / start / ?

5 Sally / finish / her homework / and then /
. meet / her friend

Unit round-up
5 Complete the text with the correct past
form of the verbs and the linking words in
the box.
and (× 2) | but | eat
meet | pick | wait | when
| Archive
Posted 22/05/17 19.42
My family and I usually go on holiday to France or
Spain, (1)              last year we went
the train to Brasov in Transylvania. While we were
travelling on the train, we (2)             
a friendly old man called Mihai. He spoke English well
and told us he had a guest house in a small village in
the mountains.
After two days in Brasov, my dad phoned Mihai
(3)              we took the bus to his
village. He (4)              for us at the
bus stop when we arrived. The village was beautiful.
Cows (5)              grass in the fields
and some old women (6)             
flowers. Mihai’s house was on the side of the
mountain. His wife, Loredana, was cooking dinner
(7)              we arrived. It was
(8)              everything was
delicious. We stayed there for four days. It was the

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