Question

Use the past perfect continuous tense form of the verb in the following sentence:
James had lost weight because he __________________ very rigorously.
A)was exercising
B)had exercise
C)had been exercising
D)was being exercised

Answer 1

Hint: Past perfect continuous is used for actions that started earlier and is continuing when the speaker speaks in the question.

Complete step-by-step answer:

To understand the given question we need to first understand the concept of past tense and past perfect continuous tense in particular. There are four types of past tense and thy are simple past, past continuous, past perfect, and past perfect tense.
A simple past is used to refer to something that happened in the past at a particular time and has been completed. Past continuous tense is used to refer to an event that is ongoing in the past. The past perfect tense is used to describe an event that took place in the past before a simple event that uses the simple past tense. Past perfect continuous tense is used to describe an event that continued in the past until another simple past tense event took place.
The syntax of this tense is: had + been + -ing form of the verb.
Keeping this in mind let us take a look at the given options.
Option A is incorrect as it is a simple past tense.
Options B and D are incorrect as they are grammatically incorrect.
The correct answer is Option C as it fits the question while also following the given syntax without any errors.

Note: It is essential to know the different types of tenses to be able to understand such questions and hence, a special focus must be given to the same.