Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
The milk ________ at 8 o'clock in the following morning.
a) Was delivering
b) delivered
c) was delivered
d) is delivered

Answer 1

Hint: Tenses are those words which can determine the time of action with the change in the structure of the sentences as well as the change in the verb forms. Past tense describes the action which was done and over with in the past. It can be subdivided into simple past, past perfect, and past continuous. Here, “deliver” is the verb and the sentence describes the action that took place at a specified time in the next morning that followed. Hence, the verb form can be determined from the above sentence structure.

Complete answer:
Now, looking at the options given above
a) was delivering: it is not appropriate for the above sentence since the words do not refer to a continuous action that recently stopped. This option refers to past continuous tense.
b) Delivered: the sentence can be an answer to “what was delivered” and not “who delivered the milk”. Hence, “was” should have preceded “delivered”
c) Was delivered: this option is apt since this clearly fits with the criteria, that is, the sentence structure. This option refers to the past tense form of the verb
d) Is delivered: This is not a repeatable action since the sentence clearly depicts a specific morning and the action had already been done. The tense here is wrong in concern with the question.
So, the correct answer is “Option c”.

Note:
"Is delivered " portrays the wrong tense form. It could have been “ is being delivered”, if the action was repetitive. Here, for instance, “The milk is being delivered every morning despite heavy rain”.
Since a specific time in the past was mentioned, the tense to be used would be the simple past form of the verb.