Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words.
I didn't answer the phone when it ________ because I ________ a shower, so I _______ it until it was too late.
A) rang / was having / didn't hear
B) rung / was having / wasn't heard
C) was ringing / had / didn't hear
D) rang / was having / wasn't heard

Answer 1

Hint: The past continuous tense is used to indicate any temporary or partial activity that occurred in the past. Here in the question, it is used to describe something that was happening continuously in the past when another action interrupted it.
In the past continuous tense, the verb is divided into two parts:
1: The basic verb was/were
2: ‘ing' form of the past tense of the verb ‘to be.'

Complete answer:
In this question, we have to use the suitable tense to make the sentence complete.
Option A) Correct choice. If we choose option A, the sentence would read : I didn’t answer the phone when it rang because I was having a shower, so I didn’t hear it until it was too late.

The sentence uses simple past and past continuous tense. ‘Din’t’ used in the beginning of the sentence indicates that the sentence is in the past tense. In the question here, the ringing of the phone while the person is showering indicates something happening continuously in the past. Hence, this option is correct.

Option B) Incorrect choice. The middle vowel of is changed to ‘u’ in the past participle of the ring. Option B is incorrect because we have used the 3rd form of the verb in the first blank whereas we have to use the 2nd form of the verb. The use of past participle with the past continuous tense of verbs is incorrect. ‘Wasn’t heard’ is incorrect as "I didn't hear" is the correct response. Because you've previously used the past tense before the action, this is the case.

Option C) Incorrect option. “Was ringing” is the past continuous tense of a ring. This option is inappropriate as use of “had” and “didn’t hear” makes the sentence a past perfect tense. Which is incorrect

Option D: Incorrect option. The use of “wasn’t heard” makes the sentence in the past perfect tense. Hence it can not be deployed in the third blank. Since the sentence is in the simple fast form the past perfect tense cannot be used with it. Also, in the 3rd blank we have to use didn't because we have to show that the speaker was not able to hear the sound of the phone.

Therefore the correct answer is opion ‘A’.

Note: The sentence makes use of the past continuous tense.
- Past continuous and Simple past are used together in a sentence to indicate a short action.
- The Past Simple is also used to represent a brief action that occurs in the middle of a longer activity.