Question

Fill in the blank using correct forms of the verb given in the brackets:
Suddenly, the bushes _27_ (rustle). Father wolf dropped to the ground, _28_ (prepare) to leap at the predator. "_29_ (hold) on!" cried mother wolf, "It's a man cub!" It _30_ (be) a little baby who was just learning to walk. He _31_ (look) into father wolf's face and _32_ (laugh). Father wolf _33_ (close) his jaws on the child's back and _34_ (carry) him to mother wolf and _35_ (lay) him down among her cubs.

Fill blank [32].
A. laughs
B. laughed
C. had laughed
D. had been laughed

Answer 1

Hint:The sentences that we read and study today are made up of a number of words that make the sentence meaningful. There are nouns, pronouns which become the subject, there are adjectives which describe the subject. Moving on, there are adverbs which describe the adjectives. There are verbs which narrate the action. These 'verbs' have to adjust with the subject of the sentence. In other words, the subject and the verb have to agree with each other. This policy is known as the 'subject-verb agreement'.

Complete answer:
1. We can see that the passage given to us in the question is an incident of the past. This means that we will use the verbs used in the past tenses to describe the action happening here. Hence, we will only use the forms of verbs used in the past tense.
2. This makes option A, ‘laughs’ incorrect as it is the first form of the verb ‘laugh’ (used in the simple present tense).
3. Option B, ‘laughed’, is the form of a verb that is used in the Simple Past tense. It brings out the meaning of the sentence correctly and thus is the correct answer.
4. Option C 'had laughed' and option D 'had been laughed' are incorrect because they are not used in the Simple Past tense.
5. Therefore, the correct answer to this question is option B. Here in order to find the correct alternative, we have to read the entire passage very carefully. From that, we not only come to know about the context, but the patterns of verb usage too before and after of the questioned verb. For example, we can see that just before ‘28’ Fill-in blank, the verb form ‘dropped’ is used in simple past tense which can be correlated with the entire passage and other verb forms.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘B’

Note:Verbs are words that describe the action. Words like ‘play’, ‘teach’, ‘kick’, ‘sit’ etc. are verbs. Verbs have to be adjusted with the nouns or pronouns (that is with their persons). This is known as the 'subject-verb agreement'.