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Leía un libro cuando esta araña me asustó.

Leía un libro cuando esta araña me asustó.
I was reading a book when this spider scared me.
From Lesson 114:Preterite vs. imperfect·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Leía un libro cuando esta araña me asustó.

Why do we use leía (imperfect) and asustó (preterite) in the same sentence?
This is a classic combination! The imperfect (leía, meaning "I was reading") sets the background scene. It is an ongoing action that was already happening in the past. The preterite (asustó, meaning "scared") is a sudden, completed event that interrupted that background action.
Leía can mean "I was reading" or "he/she was reading". How do we know it means "I" here?
By itself, leía is ambiguous because the yo (I) and él/ella/usted (he/she/you formal) forms are exactly the same in the imperfect tense. However, since the spider scared me (me asustó), context strongly implies that I was the one reading. If you needed to be absolutely clear, you could add the subject pronoun: Yo leía un libro.
Why is it esta araña and not este araña?
Araña (spider) is a feminine noun. The word for "this" must match the gender of the noun it points to, so we use the feminine esta. If the noun were masculine, like perro (dog), you would use este perro. Remember that esto is only used for abstract ideas or unidentified things, not directly before specific nouns.
Why is the word me placed right before asustó?
In Spanish, object pronouns like me (which tells us who got scared) usually go immediately before the conjugated verb. Here, esta araña is the subject doing the scaring, and it acts on me (the person being scared) right before the verb asustó.

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