过去完成进行时

What's on your mind today, Dr. Jill
吉尔博士，你今天想讲什么？

Hi John, I was looking back through my diaries again.
嗨，约翰，我又在翻我的日记回顾过去了。
 
You have some crazy stories in them!
你在日记里记录了一些疯狂的故事！
 
I know! I was just noticing how often I wrote about the duration of past activities.
我知道！我只是注意到我经常写过去活动的持续时间。
 
Can you give an example?
你能举个例子吗？
 
Listen to this sentence: I had been dancing for four hours straight before the police arrived.
听这句话：在警察来之前，我已经连续跳了四个小时的舞了。
 
Oh wow! Was this one of the crazy rock concerts you used to go to?
哦，哇哦！这是你过去常去的疯狂摇滚音乐会之一吗？
 
I still go to them!
我现在还是会去！
 
But the one I wrote about in my journal was a long time ago.
但我在日记中写到的那个是很久以前的事了。
 
I noticed you used the past perfect continuous--I had been dancing for four hours...
我注意到你用了过去完成进行时——我已经跳了四个小时的舞了……
 
Right! The basic form is "had + been + verb + -ing (present participle)".
没错！它的基本形式是“had+been+v.-ing（即现在分词）”。
 
The past perfect continuous suggests an action went on for a certain amount of time in the past before another action or event took place.
过去完成进行时表示在另一个动作或事件发生之前，过去发生的一个动作持续进行了一段时间。
 
Do you have more examples from the diary?
你的日记中还有例子吗？
 
Yes, here's another one: I had been sitting in jail for eight hours before my husband came to pay the fine.
是的，还有一个：在我丈夫来交罚款之前，我已经坐牢八个小时了。
 
Wow! So the action in progress was "sitting in jail", and the action ended when your husband arrived to get you out of jail.
哇！因此，正在进行的动作是“坐牢”，当你的丈夫来把你从监狱里救出来时，这个动作就结束了。
 
Yes, and it was the last time!
是的，这是最后一次！
 
And that's Everyday Grammar.
以上就是今天的《每日语法》。