Question

My brother ______ the sack. His boss said he was busy. Choose the most appropriate word to fill the blank.
A. Has been given
B. Gave
C. Given
D. Has given

Answer 1

Hint: Tenses are a very integral part of speech. They, when used with the correct form of verbs, help to create proper meaningful sentences. The use of the correct Auxiliary verb is also an integral part of the tenses. Auxiliary verbs help to display the verbs in accordance to different tenses so the correct syntax can be retained properly.

Complete answer:
1. In order to find the correct answer, we need to go through every option and see which of the these goes perfectly with the given context.
2. The second option, 'gave' is used with simple past tense without any auxiliary form of verb. Here, it cannot be used in the given sentence. Therefore, this option is incorrect.
3. The third option, 'given' is in present perfect tense or is also used with past perfect as well. As we know there is a clear differentiation between these participles and present or past tense in terms of the form of verbs used. Here, the word is not in accordance with the context of the sentence.
4. The fourth option, 'has given' is in present perfect tense, as we can see the word 'has' is used. Therefore, this option is completely incorrect to the given context.
5. The first option, 'has been given' is used while referring to the present perfect sequence in passive voice. And we can see that the context of the sentence is also in passive voice. Therefore, this is the correct option and fits best with the context of the given sentence.
6. The complete meaning of the hence formed sentence is firing someone. This is a metaphor used in such situations. Therefore, it is a metaphoric phrase.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘A’

Note: The use of Auxiliary verbs are very important while dealing with verbs and tenses. These auxiliary verbs are used to differentiate between tenses as the forms of verbs are limited. Hence, one should understand the use of such words in a sentence. Additionally, there is change in the writing style of tenses with the change of the voice. This should also be kept under consideration while attempting such questions.