A verb tense question tests whether you can follow time shifts between sentences. Check that each form agrees with the subject, then find the time clue for the blank’s action. Read the sentences together, because different events can happen at different times. Use simple past for a finished past event, had for work done before another past event, was or were plus -ing for past work underway, and will for the future. Each form needs its own clue.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at who does the work at the blank. Separate the keepers’ work from the other events in the passage.
- Hint 2
Which event does the date at the end of the sentence describe, and what tense would report it?
Step-by-step
Follow each event’s time
Step 1Identify the keepers’ work
The subject at the blank is the lighthouse keepers, and every choice agrees with that plural subject. So the time of their work decides. What work does the blank describe? They put the lens into place, which is separate from restoring the lantern room and viewing the lens today.
- Step 2
Find its time clue
Which time clue belongs to the keepers’ work? The words in 1880 sit at the end of their part of the sentence, so the keepers’ work is set in the past. The 2012 date belongs to the engineers’ restoration, while now allow visitors describes viewing the lens today. These events don't share a time, so the blank doesn't have to match the nearby present verb.
- Step 3
Use the simple past
A finished past event takes the simple past, the plain past form. Which choice reports what happened in 1880? The verb fit can stay fit in the past without adding -ed, so it gives the keepers’ work the tense this date calls for. Choice B.