Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
Peter _____ in the living room when the phone rang.

• A. has been sitting
• B. was sitting
• C. had had sitting
• D. sitting

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

In the sentence 'when the phone rang' indicates past tense. Thus, the answer must be in the past tense. Further, the action must indicate what Peter was doing when the phone rang. Thus, the answer must tell us about the ongoing action of Peter at that time. Therefore, the answer must be in past continuous tense.

Option A is correct. 'was sitting' is in the past continuous tense. It indicates that when the phone rang, Peter was siting. Hence, it meets all the required conditions.

Option B is incorrect. 'has been sitting is in present perfect continuous tense. As the sentence talks about an event of the past, a verb in present tense cannot be used.

Option C is incorrect. 'sitting' is an incomplete verb as it is not accompanied by an auxiliary. Thus, it will make the sentence grammatically incorrect.

Option D is incorrect. 'had had sitting' itself is a grammatically incorrect phrase as it consists of an auxiliary and two main verbs. Two main verbs cannot be adjacent to each other unless separated by a comma.