Choose the correct form to replace the underlined phrase:

The thief was beaten by the crowd before the police arrived.

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: A. The police arrived after the crowd had beaten the thief.

  1. Step 1: Analyze the temporal relationship of the two past events: the crowd beat the thief first, and subsequently the police arrived.
  2. Step 2: Express this relationship actively and with appropriate aspect: the event that occurred earlier in the past requires the past perfect tense (had beaten), while the subsequent event uses the simple past (arrived), correctly structured as: The police arrived after the crowd had beaten the thief.
Answer
The police arrived after the crowd had beaten the thief.

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