She found a strange girl. She was wearing a hospital gown, her hair was shaved and she did not talk.
Would like to know if "was not talking" ,what I answered to this test,is possible. We can think that this incapacity of talking is temporary https://www.liveworksheets.com/worksheets/en/English_as_a_Second_Language_(ESL)/Verb_tenses/Mixed_tenses_mb1382451ex
In general, you can choose whichever tense fits your meaning. The tense of the verb carries meaning, unlike (for example) the agreement of the verb in number.
So normally you can change the tense to give a different meaning. And in this case you could use "wasn't talking", though perhaps "didn't talk (at that time)" or "couldn't talk" are the more likely meanings.
