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Je lisais quand la lumière et le courant ont disparu.

Je lisais quand la lumière et le courant ont disparu.
I was reading when the light and the power disappeared.
From Lesson 134:Past tense contrast: interruptions·French

Questions & Answers about Je lisais quand la lumière et le courant ont disparu.

Why do we use lisais (imparfait) first, and then ont disparu (passé composé)?
This is a classic example of a background action being interrupted! Je lisais (I was reading) sets the scene and was an ongoing action, so it uses the imparfait. The power going out is a sudden, specific event that interrupts the reading, so ont disparu uses the passé composé.
Doesn't courant usually mean "current", like in a river?
It can! But in everyday French, le courant is very often used as a short way to say "the electricity" or "the power" (from le courant électrique). If there is a power outage, the French call it une coupure de courant.
What infinitive verb does disparu come from?
Disparu is the past participle of disparaître (to disappear). Many French verbs ending in -aître have past participles that end in -u, such as connaître (to know), which becomes connu.
Since both the light and the power disappeared (plural), shouldn't disparu have an -s at the end?
No, because the helping verb here is avoir (ont). In the passé composé, the past participle generally only adds an -s to agree with a plural subject if the helping verb is être. Because disparaître takes avoir, its past participle disparu doesn't change here.

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