Question

The forgery ________ so exquisite that it hung in the museum for the past two decades without discovery.

Which verb or verb phrase is in the correct tense to complete the sentence?


should be

is being

was

will be

Answer 1

Was. You need to match the verb tenses. Hung is past, so was is the correct answer.

Answer 2

Answer: C) was.

Explanation: a verb tense is a clue to help us figure out when the action in a sentence is happening. There are three tenses: past, present and future. To write a logical sentence, the verb tense of all of the verbs should be the same. In the given sentence the verb "hung" is in past tense, so the correct verb to fill in the blank is "was" (also in past tense). So the complete sentence would be: "The forgery was so exquisite that it hung in the museum for the past two ecades without discovery."