Question

A controversy ___6____ (trigger) by the issue.

• A. has been triggered
• B. was triggered
• C. had been triggered
• D. was being triggered

Answer 1

Answer: (A), (B)

Newspaper reports talk about events that happened in the recent past which may or may not have been completed in the past. In the given sentence the action may or may not have been completed in the past.

Past tense expresses an action or situation that was started and finished in the past. Most past tense verbs end in “-ed”. The irregular verbs have special past tense forms which must be memorized, like "left" is the past form of leave. For example – Last night, I finished my entire holidays homework.

Option D is in past continuous form and cannot be used here as it represents an action that started and continued after another action in the past.

Option C is in past perfect form and cannot be used here as it represents an action that started and completed before another action in the past.

Option B is in simple past form and Option A is in present perfect form both of which can be rightly used in the sentence, As newspaper reports are about immediate past therefore both present perfect and simple past forms are correct.

Therefore options A and B are correct.