Change Past Continuous into Past Simple. 1. The passengers were sitting comfortably on their seats. 2. Henry was collecting paintings of the 20th century's Russian artists. 3. Beautiful flowers were growing near his house in the Netherlands. 4. The cars were moving very slowly because of the traffic jams. 5. He was not teaching his parrot any words. 6. They were not cooking in their new kitchen. 7. Nobody was doing anything to help us. 8. Both of us were dreaming of the same things.