Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate words:
Those killed ____________ (identify) as Atul and Sandeep
A) Has been identified
B) Was identified
C) Have been identified
D) Were been identified

Answer 1

Hint: The sentence is in the present perfect tense, the form of the present perfect tense is important to arrive at the answer. We have two people, who were identified, so choose the subject verb agreement accordingly.

Complete answer:
To be able to arrive at the answer, we need to be thorough with tenses and subject verb agreement. Since we know that it is a present perfect continuous tense (i.e. subject + have/has been + Past Participle) , Subject verb agreement means that the subject and verb must agree with each other based upon whom we are talking about. Thus, if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural. Now the question is, should we choose ‘has/ have’. That depends upon our subject. ‘Those’ is our subject, which refers to two people, therefore we must use ‘have’.

Now let us analyze the given options
A) Option A: ‘Has’ is used for singular nouns/ pronouns, but our subject is ‘those’ which is plural. Therefore, the subject verb agreement is not appropriate.
B) Option B: ‘Was’ cannot be used because the statement is in present perfect tense.
C) Option C: ‘Those’ is in plural form, and ‘have’ is used for plural form. Therefore, we can say that the correct answer is Option C.
D) Option D: ‘Was’ cannot be used because the statement is in present perfect tense.

Some examples of ‘present perfect continuous are’:
- I have been wondering if we could achieve that ambitious goal.
- She has been staying there for over 5 years now.

Thus the correct answer is option ‘C’.

Note: The present perfect continuous form of the verb must be ‘has/ have (according to the subject) + been(because it is a continuous tense) + past participle of the verb’. To be able to arrive at the answer, it is essential for us to be thorough with tenses and subject verb agreement.