Study this example situation:

I’m working.please be quiet.This mean: I’m working now, at the time of speaking.The action is not finished.

Am/is/are  + –ing is the present continuous: I am doing something = I’m in the middle of doing it, I’ve started doing it and I haven’t finished:

The weather is nice at the moment .It’s not raining. (not It doesn’t rain)

‘Where’s Sue?’  ‘She’s having a shower.        (not She has a shower)

Where are the children? They’re swimming …….

You can turn off the television . I’m not watching it

Are you enjoying the party? (not Do you enjoy) .

What’s going on? (=What’s happening?)

Sometimes the action is not happening at the time of speaking. For example:

Tim is talking to a friend on the phone. He says:I’m learning english at the moment.Tim is not learning english at the time of speaking.He means that he has started it, and he continues .

Some more examples :

Sara wants to work in Italy, so she’s learning Italian.

John and Linda are building their own house. They hope to finish it next summer.

We can use the present continuous with today/this week/this year (periods around now)

You’re working hard today. (not You work hard today)

The company I work for isn’t doing so well this year.

We use the present continuous when we talk about changes happening around now, especially with these verbs:

get    change    become    increase    rise    fall    grow    improve    begin    start

-Is your French getting better? (not Does your French get better)

-The population of the Asia is increasing very fast. (not increases)

-At first I didn’t like my job, but I’m beginning to enjoy it now. (not I begin)

More exemples:

1) Are you feeling OK ?                                                Yes , I’m fine,thank you.

2) Please don’t make so much noise.                        I’m trying to work.

3) Is it raining?                                                              Yes, take an umbrella

4) I need to eat something soon.                               I’m getting hungry

5)What’s Paul doing?                                                   He’s reading the newspaper.

6) I don’t have anywhere to live.                               I’m looking for an apartment.

7) What are the children doing ?                              They’re watching  television .

8) Look, there’s Susanne !                                          Where’s she going?

9) We need to leave soon.                                          It’s getting late.

10) They don’t need their boat any more.              They’re trying to sell it

11) Are your friends staying at a hotel?                  Yes they are

12) It’s starting to rain.                                              They are going to get wet

13) Is Kate working today?                                        Yes she is

14) It is not true what they said                               They are lying 

Exercice on text:

In the dark the old man could feel the morning coming and as he rowed he heard the trembling sound as flying fish left the water and the hissing that their stiff set wings made as they soared away in the darkness. He was very fond of flying fish as they were his principal friends on the ocean. He was sorry for the birds, especially the small delicate dark terns that were always flying and looking and almost never finding, and he thought, the birds have a harder life than we do except for the robber birds and the heavy strong ones. Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicately for the sea. He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought [29] when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as el mar which is masculine. They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought. He was rowing steadily and it was no effort for him since he kept well within his speed and the surface of the ocean was flat except for the occasional swirls of the current. He was letting the current do a third of the work and as it started to be light he saw he was already further out than he had hoped to be at this hour. I worked the deep wells for a week and did nothing, he thought. Today I’ll work out where the schools of bonito and albacore are and maybe there will be a big one with them. Before it was really light he had his baits out and was drifting with the current. One bait was down forty fathoms. The second was at seventy-five and the third and fourth were down in the blue