Question 241·Easy·Form, Structure, and Sense
The concert tickets for the band, which has been gaining popularity rapidly, ______ sold out within minutes of being released online.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
For subject–verb agreement questions, first strip the sentence down to its core by removing prepositional phrases and descriptive clauses between the subject and the verb. Identify the true subject, decide whether it is singular or plural, then look at time clues in the sentence (words like "within minutes," "yesterday," "now") to choose the correct verb tense. Finally, eliminate any option that does not match both the subject’s number and the sentence’s time frame.
Hints
Find the subject of the verb
Ignore the blank for a moment and ask: which noun is connected to "sold out"? Is it "tickets" or "band"?
Skip the extra information
Mentally remove "for the band" and the clause "which has been gaining popularity rapidly" and reread what's left. What is the main noun at the start?
Match the verb to number and time
Once you know if the subject is singular or plural, check which verb choices match that number and also fit a completed action that happened in the past.
Step-by-step Explanation
Locate the clause with the blank
Look at the core part of the sentence around the blank: "The concert tickets for the band, which has been gaining popularity rapidly, ______ sold out within minutes of being released online."
The blank is a helping verb that goes directly before "sold out."
Identify the true subject of the verb
Find what is actually doing or experiencing the action of "sold out."
- The main noun at the start is "The concert tickets".
- "for the band" is a prepositional phrase describing the tickets.
- "which has been gaining popularity rapidly" is a clause describing the band, not the tickets.
So the subject for the verb in the blank is "tickets", which is plural.
Decide on the correct verb number and tense
Now match the verb to the subject and the time of the action.
- Because "tickets" is plural, the helping verb must also be plural.
- The phrase "sold out within minutes of being released online" describes a completed event in the past.
So you need a plural, past-tense helping verb before "sold out."
Compare each option to what the sentence needs
Check each choice for number (singular/plural) and tense:
- was – singular past form of "to be" → wrong number.
- were – plural past form of "to be" → matches a plural subject and past time.
- is – singular present form → wrong number and tense.
- has – singular present perfect helper → wrong number and awkward time reference here.
Only "were" is plural and past tense, so the completed, correct sentence is: "The concert tickets for the band, which has been gaining popularity rapidly, were sold out within minutes of being released online."