Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
He ____ empty the contents of his suitcase onto the counter.
a- was made
b- was made to
c- had made
d- will be made

Answer 1

Hint: We use the simple past tense to indicate an action that began and ended in the past itself. Simple past tense may not indicate exactly when the action took place in the past.

Complete answer:
Let us look at the structure and usage of the simple past tense-
Structure- Subject + base form of the verb + ed/d + object
Usage- We ate some chocolates. Here, ‘ate’ is an irregular verb because it has its own distinct simple past tense.
In the given question- We can conclude that X was made to empty the contents of his suitcase onto the corner.
Here, we have used ‘was made to’ because the action took place in the past. Also, the presence of the verb, ‘empty’ suggests the use of an infinitive. Hence, we have used ‘was made to’.
Now, let’s examine the given options-
Option a- ‘was made’ is an incorrect option because we need to use the infinitive form in the sentence.
Option b- ‘was made to’ is the correct option because there is already an existing verb, ‘empty’ in the sentence.
Option c- ‘had made’ is an incorrect option because it is grammatically incorrect.
Option d- ‘will be made’ is an incorrect option because we need an infinitive form in the sentence. The correct answer is Option ‘b’.

Note:
Keep in mind, the simple past tense is also known as the preterite. The simple past tense is the basic most form of any past tense in English grammar.