French language Q&A Forum

The fill in the blanks exercise was about people arriving in a new town, to find the streets empty of people. "Tous les magasins de la ville étaient fermés." This was followed by a sentence in the past tense (walking on empty streets from 3pm till 5pm) Then came the sentence being queried (post below).   Thanks so very much to all who responded earlier.

After trying this exercise several times in the past few weeks, I'm still trying to figure out 

1) why "They stayed there to watch..."  is "Elles sont restées..." instead of "Elles y sont restées.."  Is "there" implied and therefore the "y" is unnecessary?

2) why s'approcher is used in the instance of the people approaching the fence while approcher is used in the horses timid approach. Both connote gradually moving closer, don't they?

To be completely honest, I couldn't follow this lesson at all. Maybe it's just the way it was written but I found it almost impossible to actually comprehend what was being conveyed and I had to seek out other sources. 

Thanks for everything you guys do! I usually love Kwiziq lessons, but I feel like this one needs a rethink. 

J'ai besoin de supplementaire information sur l'usage de "en tant que". Remercie de votre assistance.

I assume that the avoir aspect of the sentence also changes with tense for example: 

Imparfaite =J'avais besoin de= I have needed 

Future= J'aurai besoin de= I will need 

Passe compose= J'ai eu besoin de= I needed 

Plus-que-Parfaite= J'avais eu besoin de= I have had needed

etc. 

Is this correct? 

It appears that you have altered the sensitivity of the-- Next lesson box, in all exercices

A click used to operate from anywhere in the box - now only in the bottom area..

Would it be possible to make the whole box sensitive to a mouse click.

Thank you for help'

I'm super confused about when to put an indefinite article before a noun like dancer, skater, singer. I know you are never supposed to use it when speaking about your profession. Je suis chanteuse. But, what if you are talking about a student. Il est élève? Is student a profession and what if that student does extracurriculars like ice skating? Il est un patineur sur glace or Il est patineur sur glace. How do you say you are a student but you are also a singer or a soccer player or a swimmer.

Sharing an observation (from KiwizIQ quiz answer): ‘faire du hockey’, not ‘faire de l’hockey’ so an exception to the silent ‘h’ rule.  I accept it (it sounds better; perhaps ‘hockey’ being a foreign word is relevant?).