Why not "était" instead of "a été" ?
Oui, je sais, c’est vraiment bête, why not c'était vraiment bête,
Le pauvre Tom n’arrêtait pas de dire pardon, Tom was'nt stopping saying pardon, instead of why not use ? Le pauvre Tom n'a pas arrêté de dire pardon, Tom did stop saying pardon,
Tom did not stop saying pardon, or Tom ne arréterait pas de dire pardon, Tom would not stop saying pardon.
I find these tenses very confusing,
The speaker states the general fact that it is stupid to burn dinner. It's just as you would say in English: Yesterday I burned the chicken. I know that's stupid, but...
See my previous post on the use of imperfect tense in French. If you see continuous form (-ing form) in English, consider using the imperfect in French. Imparfait vs passé composé
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