past continuous tense and past perfect tense
Both men had just begun to swim towards the shore, when they noticed with dismay that the speedboat was moving in a circle. It now ________________(come) towards them at tremendous speed. In less than a minute, it ________________(roar) past them only a few feet away.

The above is the exercise from new concept English. The verb forms to fill in the above two blanks are "came" and "had roared".
My question is: can I use "was coming" (past continuous tense instead of simple past tense), and "roared" (simple past tense instead of past perfect tense)?

Question

past continuous tense and past perfect tense
Both men had just begun to swim towards the shore, when they noticed with dismay that the speedboat was moving in a circle. It now ________________(come) towards them at tremendous speed. In less than a minute, it ________________(roar) past them only a few feet away.

The above is the exercise from new concept English. The verb forms to fill in the above two blanks are "came" and "had roared". 
My question is: can I use "was coming" (past continuous tense instead of simple past tense), and "roared" (simple past tense instead of past perfect tense)?

Answer

I checked the original text, and the answers are "came" and "roared" (not "had roared").

Yes, you could technically use any of those tenses you mentioned, but if you think about the narrative structure, then past simple is your best option.

Answer

As I read the original text through, I automatically filled the blanks in as "was coming" and "had roared".  "Roared" instead of "had roared" sounds okay to me.

Answers · 4

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