Past Tenses

When Dora went/had gone to pay for the petrol she was putting/had put in her car, she realized/was realizing that she lost/had lost her credit card.

While I was waiting/had waited for my meal to arrive, I saw/was seeing that the two men who had followed me into the restaurant were staring/had been staring at me from a nearby table.

When I heard/was hearing the noise at the window, I knew/had known that someone tried/was trying to break into the house.

Maria did not remember/was not remembering anything about the accident, except that she did not drive/had not been driving too fast and in fact had almost stopped/was almost stopping before she reached the crossroads.

By the time the fire engines arrived/was arriving at the cottage, Tom and his neighbours already put out/had already put out the fire and were carrying /had been carrying furniture out of the blackened building.

"What did you do/were you doing in the High Street at that time of night, and why did you run away/had you run away when the officer told/was telling you to stop?" asked the lawyer.

While Sally painted/was painting the ceiling, she fell off/was falling off the ladder but luckily she didn't break/wasn't breaking any bones.

Our taxi to the airport didn't turn up/wasn't turning up on time, and so by the time we got/were getting to the check-in desk, the flight already closed/had already closed.

Marlowe walked slowly into the room. He didn't forget/hadn't forgotten his last visit to the house, when Miss LaPorte had fired/was firing two shots at him, so he had taken /was taking no chances this time.

Alice could see that the tall boy had/was having difficulty making himself understood, but she decided/was deciding not to help him. After all, nobody had helped/was helping her during her first days in this country!