Was standing/had been standing

Question

Hello,could you please tell me why in sentence 1 "was standing" is used and in sentence 2 "had been standing"?1. One afternoon Socrates was standing outside the gates of Athens when he noticed a traveller who had been staring at him for some time.2. Socrates had been standing there a few hours more when another man approached him.I am doing an exercises on narrative tenses and these are the answers from the key.  I'm surprised because the contexts seem to be similar. Thank you

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Hotmale1. One afternoon Socrates was standing outside the gates of Athens when he noticed a traveller who had been staring at him for some time.

An action in the past (standing) interrupted at one point in time by another action (noticed).
We have no idea of how long the first action was.

Hotmale2. Socrates had been standing there a few hours more when another man approached him.

The past perfect progressive emphasizes the duration of the action (a few hours) before the interruption.
2. Socrates had been standing there a few hours when another man approached him.

Examples:
I had been waiting only a few minutes when I flagged down a free taxi.
We had been waiting for hours before the luggage finally appeared on the carousel. I think it was put on a later flight.

Hotmale · Answer

Thank you so much! It's very clear now <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'/>

Was standing/had been standing

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