There was a man on the news last night who reckons we ——– visited by beings…
2025
There was a man on the news last night who reckons we ——– visited by beings from other worlds.
- A.
were
- B.
have been
- C.
had been
- D.
had
Attempted by 23 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Correct answer: have been
Explanation: The verb "reckons" is present tense and expresses a current belief about a past occurrence. The present perfect passive "have been visited" indicates that at some time up to now we were visited and that this past event has relevance to the present, so it fits the meaning and grammar of the sentence.
"were visited": simple past passive; possible in some contexts but less natural here because the speaker's current belief about a past event is better expressed with the present perfect passive.
"have been visited": present perfect passive; correctly expresses a past event with present relevance and matches the present-tense reporting verb.
"had been visited": past perfect passive; refers to an event before another past event, which is not indicated here, so it is inappropriate.
"had": incomplete and ungrammatical here because the past participle "been visited" is missing to form the passive perfect.