Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
In a fortnight’s time they_______their exams.
(a)have taken
(b)will have taken
(c)will have been taken
(d)had taken

Answer 1

Hint: The option to be selected must indicate future perfect tense. It should suggest that we are projecting ourselves forward into the future and looking back at an action that will be completed sometime later than now.

Complete answer: The future perfect is a verb form or construction used to describe an event that is expected or planned to happen before a time of reference in the future, such as “will have finished” in the English sentence “I will have finished by tomorrow.”
Now let us go through the given options: Option(a) ‘have taken’ is incorrect. 'Have taken’ is in the present tense but, ‘have taken’ proves that the action is ongoing and not complete. Therefore, Option A is the wrong answer.
Option(b) ‘will have taken’ is the correct answer. ‘Will have taken’ is in the future perfect tense and indicates a complete action will happen in the future. This option suits the sentence perfectly. Hence, this is the correct option.
Option(c) ‘will have been taken’ is also incorrect as ‘Will have been taken’ is in the future perfect continuous tense and the tense of the sentence is perfect. So, Option C is not suitable for the answer.
Option(d) ‘had taken’ is again wrong. ‘Had taken’ is in the past tense but it shows that the action is complete but it is supposed to take place in future. Hence, it’s incorrect.
Therefore, option b is the right answer.

Note: The future perfect is composed of two elements-
the simple future of the verb "to have" (will have) + the past participle of the main verb. It is most often used with a time expression.