Can I use the present progressive to complete this sentence?

Question

Recently, I've been doing some exercises from "Advanced English Practice" by Vince M., and I stumbled across this sentence:
"A farmer in the west of England now ______ (hold) sheep races on a regular basis, and ..."
As far as I know, temporary or new habits can be expressed with the Present Progressive, but in the answer key I found only one
possible option to fill the blank, which was "holds".
So basically I'd like to know if you can use the Present Progressive form of "hold" to complete that sentence. Giving some explanation
would be greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Anonymous some explanation

The adverb "now" would come between the auxiliary and the main verb if you used the present progressive (... is now holding ...), which would be a good answer; however, the exercise had ... England now ____ ..., which means you'd have to write ... England now is holding ..., a different word order. now is holding is possible, even if less idiomatic, but the wording of the exercise gave you a hint about what was expected as the correct answer.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you so much for the explanation. Now I get it <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Can I use the present progressive to complete this sentence?

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