Tense / aspect

Hi,

This piece is from an online fill in the gap test. The idea is that students learn to apply the correct tense / aspect in each situation. I took the test and got only 85 %. I looked at my mistakes and still find it difficult to understand why my suggestions should be wrong. My alternative answers are the ones in brackets. Would love to hear from you, telling me why I was wrong in the first place or whether these answers are in fact correct.

Dan

Two years ago Trisha's firm made the mistake of sending her to Germany. Although she had studied German at school, she soon discovered that she could not remember very much. She missed an important meeting because she had forgotten that "halb neun" in German meant (means because it still means) half past eight in English. So while she had (was having because I emphazise the length of time) breakfast her colleagues were already at the meeting. When she arrived "on time" , the meeting had already finished.

When she got back to England, Trisha joined a German course at her local college. While she was drove (was driving because I put emphasis on the stretch of time) to work every day she listened (was listening because she would listen throughout the journey to her workplace) to language CDs. In the past few weeks her German has improved a lot and now she knows how to tell the time ! Right now she is studying hard for an examination. Next year Trisha is planning to spend her summer holiday in a language school near Munich. After that, she hopes that her company will send her to Germany again.