Help needed

The book is rubbish All 3 of those are valid

All 3 options are grammatical, with c.) being most likely to "sound weird" as it is saying something very specific in an unusual way. Ignore any analysis that suggests a.) is better than b.); there is no objective reason to make this determination. The truth is simply that both options are acceptable, and which should be used depends on what the speaker wishes to convey.

Am I the only one that completely hates all 3? I ate *some* apples, I was eating some apples, I had eaten some apples. In all 3 cases, I would consider it unnatural to not use the word "some" before apples. I could may be say "I was eating apple", but that's not plural

Is there context here? Like before question 1 does it say "Select the verb in the \[something\] tense for these 20 excercises." or something? Because all 3 of these make sense, but have subtly different meanings. That said, "ate" seems like the most natural word to use here.

If there were more to the sentence we would be able to answer one of the three. For example, if the sentence continued “apples, when suddenly…”, you’d want to use A for sure. My point is that these choices don’t exactly mean the same thing, but within this specific example, none of them are objectively wrong either. Context is important.

Without any more information, b sounds correct. If you said that you were eating apples at 5pm yesterday, I’d expect to find out what happened next. Like “I was eating apples when the telephone rang.”

they can all be correct depending on context, but i’m more inclined to B

Yes "was eating" would be more correct, maybe the textbook made a mistake. Bonus: Even C can be good too

Any of those answers would be *grammatically* correct. In this case, which one is the correct answer for that question (assuming it's not just a really poor question) most likely depends on what you've been asked to provide.

I agree, the book seems wrong. Eating apples takes some period of time (because of the multiple apples and the time needed to consume an apple), therefore the past progressive tense (indicating a continuous action that has ended some time in the past) "was eating" is more appropriate. "Had VERB" would make sense for a singular apple or an action on that apple which wasn't as extensive as eating, and was in the past relative to "yesterday at 5 o'clock." So if you had thrown an apple away at noon yesterday, you would write: "Yesterday at 5 o'clock, I had thrown the apple in the garbage already." If the action was discrete/one time/very quick, and happened at the time referenced (5 o'clock) you could use the simple past tense ate: "Yesterday at 5 o'clock I ate a bite of an apple." To sum up: "Yesterday at 5 o'clock, I was eating apples."

All 3 are valid. Are there specific instructions that might shed light on why they are looking for A?

I've only been visiting this sub for a week or two. and can firmly state that most of the learning material has been written by non-native speakers. If the answer, is "ate" the next word needs an adjective. I ate some apples. "A" is the correct answer.

I disagree with others that A is more correct than B. It depends on the context. "What were you doing at 5 o'clock yesterday?" "I was eating apples." "What did you eat yesterday?" "At 9 AM I had a bowl of cereal, at noon I had a sandwich, and at 5 o'clock I ate apples."

Is this sentence the whole thing? Or is there any previous text that provides context, or that is supposed to match up with this sentence?

There is no wrong answer. What were you doing at 5 yesterday? You were eating apples. Completely correct answer. What did you do at 5 yesterday? You ate apples. Also a completely correct answer. At 5 yesterday, had you eaten any apples? Yes, you had. This wording is less likely to be used in real life, but it still isn’t wrong. None are wrong. Is there some context here to indicate which is right?

all three are valid options with slightly different connotations “i was eating apples” sounds slightly more natural, but saying “i ate apples” and “i had eaten apples” both sound perfectly acceptable without sounding off or confusing. it’s mostly just personal preference at that point, or if something specific is being highlighted from past context. “was eating” sounds more like an answer to “what were you doing yesterday” “ate apples” sounds more like an answer to “what did you eat yesterday” “had eaten” sounds more like a standalone statement focusing on the fact that the apples were already eaten rather than what you were doing at the time

Not sure if it would be considered technically wrong, but B does sound really weird. Definitely would be more natural as “some apples”

if u specify a time, then its a past continuous, its "was eating"

It would be correct to say, 'Yesterday, I ate some apples' but since there is the exact time we need to choose a) was eating... In these situations past continuous is a better choice because specific time of the day is given. Hope this helped. 🍀

The only situation where I could imagine any textbook worth more than the paper it's printed on asking such questions is one that asks you to select the simple past form in each of the sentences. Otherwise, as many have said, they are all grammatically acceptable and you can't possibly claim there is a "correct" answer.