Question

Sita ........................... a novel when the phone rang.

• A. read
• B. is reading
• C. was reading
• D. has read

Answer 1

Answer:

C. was reading

• The sentence describes two past actions.

• One action (was reading) was in progress.

• The other action (rang) interrupted it.

• For an ongoing past action interrupted by another past action, we use the past continuous tense.

📌 Rule to remember:

Past continuous → was/were + verb-ing
Used with when for interrupted actions.