Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.
When the doctor came in / my tooth was stopped aching / out of fear that I might lose my tooth.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → my tooth was stopped aching
The tooth stopped aching by itself. Nobody stopped it, so the passive “was stopped” is wrong. Drop “was” and use the simple past stopped. The aching stopped at the moment the doctor came in, so both verbs stay in the simple past.
Option 1: When the doctor came in — No error.
Option 2: my tooth was stopped aching — Error. “was stopped” should be “stopped”.
Option 3: out of fear that I might lose my tooth — No error. “Might” is the past form of “may”, so it fits a sentence in the past.
Corrected: When the doctor came in, my tooth stopped aching out of fear that I might lose my tooth.