Past Perfect Continuous Quiz 6 — Option-by-Option Explanation & Word Meaning (Improve Spoken English With Cambridge-Style Vocabulary Builder)
Past Perfect Continuous Tense — Exercise 6 (Q&A with Solution’s Explanation and Enrich English with Vocabulary like British)
This practice test trains you to recognize and use the Past Perfect Continuous Tense (had + been + verb-ing form) in real contexts. Each question includes the correct past-perfect-continuous form, a short verb definition like in Oxford and Cambridge dictionary (vocabulary builder + POS notes), and detailed one-sentence explanations for every option (A–D) that tell why the option is correct or incorrect and what choosing it would mean. Practice, prepare and improve both English grammar and vocabulary.
English Grammar Definition: Past Perfect Continuous (had + been + verb-ing form)
- Form: had + been + verb-ing form.
- Examples: She had been polishing; They had been coming; Had you been starting it before?
- Main uses:
- To show an action was ongoing up to a past moment or before another past action.
- To emphasise duration or repeated activity before something in the past.
- Signal words: for X time, since, before, by the time, until, prior to, when.
- Negatives / Questions: had not (hadn’t) + been + V-ing; Had + subject + been + V-ing?
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Quiz Instructions
- Read each question and choose the best answer out of four given options.
- On top, header section of the quiz, you will see the “title of the quiz,’ ‘spending-time,’ ‘value of question in points,’ and ‘number of questions.”
- Below on footer, you will see Full Screen mode. As the name suggests, it covers the whole screen. It will save a lot of your time attempting the quiz.
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- The Full Leaderboard link will take you to a page, where you can see all users attempts.
- Below the quiz box, there are explanation of each options. You can study and try again.
- Best of Luck!
Quiz Question, Answer and Explanation
Note: Do remember in the quiz box above, the questions and options will shuffle, so they won’t have the same sequence like 1, 2, 3, or A, B, C as below.
1. By the time the observability team arrived, they __ noise filters for several hours.
A) had been denoising B) denoised C) have denoised D) were denoising
Verb (POS & meaning): denoise — verb. To remove noise from data or signals; denoising (noun).
A) Correct: had been denoising — grammatically expresses continuous activity ending before team arrival; semantically it means the team had already spent hours actively cleaning signals.
B) Wrong: past simple; would state a completed action but not communicate it was ongoing up to the arrival.
C) Wrong: present perfect; links action to present relevance (e.g., results now exist) rather than positioning it before the arrival.
D) Wrong: past continuous; shows activity in progress at some past moment but doesn’t emphasise it had been happening prior to another past event.
2. They __ backfill jobs overnight before the morning report generated.
A) had been backfilling B) backfilled C) have backfilled D) were backfilling
Verb: backfill — verb. To fill gaps in data/history by reprocessing or inserting missing entries; backfill (noun).
A) Correct: indicates repeated/ongoing reprocessing during the night that concluded before report generation.
B) Wrong: past simple only states the action occurred, not its continuous/nightly character or that it had been happening up to the report.
C) Wrong: present perfect ties the action to now rather than marking it as a prior continuous process.
D) Wrong: past continuous suggests an action in progress at a moment but not the completed-before relationship.
3. Before the freeze, engineers __ database checkpoints to make recovery faster.
A) had been checkpointing B) checkpointed C) have checkpointed D) were checkpointing
Verb: checkpoint — verb. To create a snapshot or savepoint enabling recovery; checkpoint (noun).
A) Correct: emphasises repeated snapshot creation over time that finished prior to the freeze; it signals deliberate, ongoing preparation.
B) Wrong: past simple would report checkpoint creation but not the continuous, preparatory nature.
C) Wrong: present perfect would suggest current relevance instead of prior continuous work.
D) Wrong: past continuous indicates activity but lacks clear positioning as occurring before the freeze.
4. By the time the analyst opened the report, she __ correlating events across logs.
A) had been correlating B) correlated C) has correlated D) was correlating
Verb: correlate — verb. To find relationships between data/events; correlation (noun).
A) Correct: shows sustained cross-log analysis up to the moment she opened the report; conveys both duration and prior-to relation.
B) Wrong: past simple would say correlation occurred but not that it was an ongoing investigative process.
C) Wrong: present perfect links to the present, not suitable for the past-before-past nuance.
D) Wrong: past continuous could imply in-progress work but not that it had been occurring before opening the report.
5. They __ audit trails for inconsistencies right up until the change window started.
A) had been auditing B) audited C) have audited D) were auditing
Verb: audit — verb. To inspect records systematically; audit (noun).
A) Correct: shows continuous inspection leading up to the window and focuses on duration/intensity.
B) Wrong: past simple lacks the emphasis on the ongoing nature preceding the window.
C) Wrong: present perfect anchors action to present relevance and not to the earlier past moment.
D) Wrong: past continuous could show simultaneous activity but not the completed-before relationship.
6. By the time the migration finished, we __ backfill the missing partition segments.
A) had been backfilling B) backfilled C) have backfilled D) were backfilling
Verb: backfill — verb. To fill gaps in data/history by reprocessing or inserting missing entries; backfill (noun).
A) Correct: indicates continuous catching-up work on partitions that was occurring before migration completion; stresses duration.
B) Wrong: past simple doesn’t emphasise ongoing repair leading up to migration.
C) Wrong: present perfect indicates present-state relevance rather than prior continuous work.
D) Wrong: past continuous shows ongoing action but not that it had been occurring before a later past event.
7. They __ defragmenting file systems late into the night before the scheduled snapshot.
A) had been defragmenting B) defragmented C) have defragmented D) were defragmenting
Verb: defragment — verb. To reorganise on-disk data for contiguous layout; defragmentation (noun).
A) Correct: communicates long, continuous optimisation work that concluded before the snapshot; conveys both duration and completion relative to snapshot.
B) Wrong: past simple would say defragmentation happened but not that it had been running for a long stretch prior.
C) Wrong: present perfect ties to present outcome, not the earlier continuous process.
D) Wrong: past continuous lacks the prior-to nuance.
8. Before the outage notice, operators __ evicting stale cache entries to free memory.
A) had been evicting B) evicted C) have evicted D) were evicting
Verb: evict — verb. To forcibly remove cached items/resources; eviction (noun).
A) Correct: emphasises a continuing clean-up process up to the notice; selecting it says cleaning was ongoing and prior to the notice.
B) Wrong: past simple would only assert eviction took place, not the ongoing cleaning behaviour.
C) Wrong: present perfect suggests relevance now rather than placement before the notice.
D) Wrong: past continuous suggests simultaneous action but does not mark it as having been occurring before the notice.
9. They __ auditing system settings regularly for weeks before the audit date.
A) had been auditing B) audited C) have audited D) were auditing
Verb: audit — verb. To inspect records systematically; audit (noun).
A) Correct: stresses routine, repeated auditing across weeks culminating before the audit — implies sustained, prior effort.
B) Wrong: past simple would not convey recurrence nor that the action occurred up to that date.
C) Wrong: present perfect indicates a present connection rather than past-before-past.
D) Wrong: past continuous shows activity but not that it had been happening before the audit.
10. Before the ticket closed, support __ de-escalating multiple complaints concurrently.
A) had been deescalating B) deescalated C) have deescalated D) were deescalating
Verb: deescalate — verb. To reduce urgency or conflict; de-escalation (noun).
A) Correct: indicates ongoing conflict-management efforts that had been happening until just before closure.
B) Wrong: past simple would narrate incidents but not that they were being continuously handled prior to closure.
C) Wrong: present perfect anchors to now, not appropriate for the past sequence.
D) Wrong: past continuous lacks the “had been … before” timeframe.
