Question

Everyone ........ When the earthquake hit the small town(sleep)

Answer 1

Answer:

Everyone was sleeping when the earthquake hit the small town.

Answer 2

Answer:

Everyone was sleeping when the ‘earthquake hit’ the small town is the correct answer.  

Explanation:

Here, in the above sentence, ‘was sleeping’ indicates the action sleeping and it was continuous in the past. When the earthquake hits the town, everyone was sleeping and they were not aware of what was happening at the moment. The verb sleep is in the past continuous tense and the verb ‘sleep’ best describes the action.