5.28 past situations

If you want to say that a situation existed over a period of time in the past, you also use the simple past.

• He lived in Paris during his last years.
• Throughout 1954 he assiduously studied peerage law.

5.29

If you are talking about something that happened in the past, and you mention a situation that existed at that time, you use the simple past. You can do this whether or not the situation still exists.

• All the streets in this part of Watford looked alike.
• About fifty miles from the university there was one of India's most famous and ancient Hindu temples.