Question

Choose appropriate option to fill in the blank:
The police ______ three people but later they let them go. (arrest)
A) has arrested
B) arrested
C) is arresting
D) will arrest

Answer 1

Hint: The tenses of verbs indicate how an event is related to the flow of time. In English, there are three primary verb tenses: present, past, and future. There are four aspects of the present, past, and future tenses: simple, progressive, perfect, and perfect progressive.

Complete answer:
The simple past is the verb tense that is used to describe events that occurred or existed in the past. We shall use the simple past tense because we are talking about an event that happened in the past. Since the statement in the question is in the past tense, the appropriate word should also be in the past tense.

Now let us look into the given options:
A) has arrested : The word ‘has’ is used along with a past participle to form present perfect tense. This tense denotes past action that continues into the present or the result of past action that continues into the present. Hence this is not the correct answer.
B) arrested : The option ‘arrested’ is in the simple past tense. Hence this is the correct answer.
C) is arresting : The option ‘is arresting is in the present continuous tense. Hence this is not the correct answer.
D) will arrest : The option ‘will arrest’ is in the future tense. Hence this is not the correct answer.

Therefore, the correct option is (B) arrested.

Note: The simple past tense indicates that we are discussing an event that has already occurred. Unlike the past continuous tense, which is used to describe events that occurred over time, the simple past tense highlights the completion of the action.