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Help the detective complete her notes on the clumsy burglar's timeline by selecting the best options.
By the time the security guard finally woke up, the thief __________________________ to crack the safe for two hours. He was completely exhausted because he ___________________________ from a very angry goose for miles before he even broke into the building!
The correct answers are had been trying and had been running.
We use the Past Perfect Continuous (had been + verb-ing) to show that an action was ongoing up to a specific point in the past.
In the first blank, the thief's action happened continuously for two hours before the guard woke up.
In the second blank, the thief's running caused him to be exhausted before he broke in.