PAST SIMPLE OR CONTINUOUS?

The PAST CONTINUOUS indicates actions that were in progress at a specific time in the past:
When the Twin Towers fell, I was eating some pizza and my mother was driving home from work

The PAST SIMPLE indicates finished actions and finished time. It also indicates a sequence of events, one after the other:
When I saw the news, I got up, looked at the TV and phoned my brother in New York.

Revise this point with this presentation:

simple past vs. past continuous

More PowerPoint presentations from Beth Bogage

For online exercises on the past simple go here and here. for exercises on the past continuous, go here and here.