Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank and make a grammatically correct sentence.
Susan finally arrived at the party at midnight, but by then, most of the guests ________.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The most appropriate option to fill in the blank and make a grammatically correct sentence is:
☀ had left
The sentence would read: "Susan finally arrived at the party at midnight, but by then, most of the guests had left."
Explanation: In this sentence, you're describing an action that happened before Susan's arrival at the party. The past perfect tense, "had left," is used to indicate that the guests left before a specific past point in time (midnight, in this case). The other options don't form a correct sentence:
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Having left: This is a participle phrase and doesn't work as the main verb in the sentence.
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Have left: This is the present perfect tense, which doesn't convey the correct past time relationship with Susan's arrival at midnight.
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Left: This is the simple past tense, which doesn't indicate that the action (guests leaving) occurred before another past action (Susan's arrival).