过去进行时 I was speaking of earlier 体现了什么含义

"Ithink one of the most important milestones we're going to see over the nextfive to ten years is the movement of some of this work into the clinic.

Sofor example the target that I was speaking of earlier is a target that we canmake a drug for, which we are doing and then get to patients in the clinic."

这是一位美国医学工作者面对记者采访时说的。

请教老师：这里用过去进行时 I was speaking of earlier 体现了什么含义？

我假如用一般过去时I spoke of earlier代替，含义会有哪些变化？

就是说，这2者在这个目前的具体语境中，到底理解上有哪些不同？

这个定语从句用一般过去时或过去进行时，均可，不同不是非常大。

So for example the target that I spoke of earlier is a target that 

So for example the target that I was speaking of earlier is a target that 

不同是：前者为过去一个已经发生的、结束的动作。后者指当时在某个场所正在进行的一个动作，过去进行时重在为目前描述并展示当时的情景。