We use the past simple to talk about actions and states which we see as completed in the past.
We can use it to talk about a specific point in time.
It can also be used to talk about a period of time.
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She lived in Tokyo for seven years.
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They were in London from Monday to Thursday of last week.
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When I was living in New York, I went to all the art exhibitions I could.
You will often find the past simple used with time expressions such as these:
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Yesterday
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three weeks ago
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last year
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in 2002
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from March to June
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for a long time
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for 6 weeks
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in the 1980s
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in the last century
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in the past