Past continuous examples: The civil engineer was drawing his blueprints to start with the construction of the building. The soccer players weren’t training at 8:00 a.m. My mom was sweeping the floor with a new broom. Simple past examples: I saw a big whale at BahĂa Ballena in 2010. Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. Neil Armstrong was the first man to arrive to the moon in 1969.