4. Grammar: Talking about Ongoing Actions in the Past

In the previous task, you may have noticed that some of the verb forms in the two short texts were capitalized:

In 1968, Dr Spencer Silver WAS WORKING in the research laboratories of the 3M company in the US as a research chemist.

Then, one day, when Arthur Fry, a colleague of Silver’s, WAS SINGING in his church choir, the bookmarks in his hymn book KEPT falling out, so he USED some of Silver’s adhesive to keep them in place. 

Initially, in 1977, Endo's team WAS TRYING to use the piezoelectric effect to move ink out of the nozzle but NOTICED that ink shot out of a syringe neck when it was accidentally touched with a soldering iron. The hot iron FORCED the ink out of the syringe. That is how Endo INVENTED the inkjet printer.

You can see that all capitalized verbs talk about actions happening in the past, but some are simple while some are progressive forms. Why is that? Find out in this grammar overview. After that, practise this grammar point in this task. Then read about three more accidental discoveries/inventions in this reading comprehension task. Finally, use these notes to give the stories behind famous discoveries/inventions in full sentences.