I've prepared the following gap-fill exercise for my students (I'm in the EFL teachers programme):
Lilli ……………… (sit) on the saddle while her friend Victoria pushes her from behind.
However, I'm not certain if it should be 'sits' or 'is sitting'.
Advanced Grammar in Use states
When we focus on an activity itself, starting before and continuing up to (and possibly beyond) a particular point of time, rather than focusing on actions as completed events, we use continuous forms. (Hewings 2015)
Assuming that "Victoria" only pushed her for a moment, but Lilli continues sitting on the saddle for a while after that, intuitively and based on the rule quoted above, I would assume present continuous is correct?
Based on this rule, if "Victoria" was pushing Lilli the whole time and continues pushing her, would the tense of the subclause have to be present continuous as well?
Hewings, Martin. 2015. Advanced Grammar in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press