French language Q&A Forum

I have read the lesson and the questions and answers below.  From what I can tell, Leila finit sa soupe tres vite should indicate in passe simple that Leila finished her soup very fast.  The lesson indicates that the context of the question should indicate which tense is being used; there is no apparent (to me, at least) context that would suggest that she is finishing her soup quickly (present tense rather than passe simple).  To have given both answers suggests that we should use both because each is possible, which confuses me.  I've read and re-read the answers and I'm still not entirely certain that I understand the logic here.  Please help!!

Very 'tricky/unnatural' syntax for this 'idiom' 

le gâteau était en forme de fusée ! so forme and fusée are two nouns with noun 2 acting  as adjective (like 'la salle de classe). No article before first noun because of preposition 'en' which  kinda  fools us(well me) a bit. I tried "they made rocket shaped  cakes" and got "ils ont fait des gâteaux en forme de fusée". Rockets have ONE SHAPE and thus all the cakes had that ONE shape.

I tried "they made cards in the shapes of flowers" and got "ils ont fait des cartes en forme de fleurs". Not 'formes'! Usually even behind idioms are solid grammatical truths.. I suspect this is a dumb question but does  the use of 'en' in this context require a singular noun. Examples of 'not' dont come to mind... unless with a noun like 'larmes' which is really be default plural.

Can I say "juste comme" for "just as"?

The writing challenge asked "Some friends have recommened a gite".

The answer accepted was "Des amis nous ont recommandé un gîte."
An answer that was not accepted was "Certains amis nous ont recommandé un gîte."

Why is the second one wrong?