Question

Fill in the blank using the appropriate option:
While I was on holiday, my camera ______ (disappear) from my hotel room.
 a. has disappeared
b. had disappeared
c. disappeared
d. disappeared

Answer 1

Hint: The student should read the sentence carefully to understand when the event is supposed to be taking place. Then the options should be carefully distinguished to find out whether they are correct or not.

Complete answer:
A verb is a content word that denotes an action, occurrence, or state of existence. A verb is the word class that serves as the predicate of a sentence.
Let us thus analyze the options given to us in this question -
Option (a.), 'has disappeared', refers to ‘present perfect tense’.
Therefore, option (a.) is incorrect as we need simple past tense here since the event described describes a holiday in the past, during which the camera disappeared.
Option (b.), ‘had disappeared', refers to ‘past perfect tense’.
Therefore, option (b.) is incorrect. We need simple past tense here since the sentence describes a holiday in the past, during which the camera disappeared.
Option (c.), ‘disappeared', refers to ‘simple past tense’.
Therefore, option (c.) is correct as we needed simple past tense here since the sentence describes a holiday in the past, during which the camera disappeared.
Option (d.), ‘disappears', refers to ‘simple present tense’.
Therefore, option (d.) is incorrect as we need simple past tense here since the event described describes a holiday in the past, during which the camera disappeared.

Note:
 In this question, it will be helpful for the student to recall the concept of tenses. Tense is a grammatical category of verbs used to express distinctions of time. There are three tenses - past, present, and future.