Can't decide between "a" and "e".

My gut says A. The use of the past perfect passive in E doesn’t seem to fit with the immediately following “yesterday”. By placing a specific time word into the sentence, in my personal opinion, it would make it impossible to use the past perfect without some filler like “before yesterday”. But I will freely admit to being quite unsure with this one.

A is better. There's no need for "had", and it makes things confusing. Did the investigators dig it up *before* the horses were electrocuted, and thus *cause* their injury? Probably not - I'd *guess* that they were investigating *after* it happened - but e could be interpreted in that way. Perhaps, in context, we know that the horses were (thought to have been) electrocuted a week ago - but that's not clear from the information provided. If in doubt (about perfect tense), choose the easiest option - keep it simple. I think A is less likely to cause confusion. (But, in general, it's a bad question.)

A is correct because if you use the constructions in "e", you don't say "yesterday", you say "the day before", in which case it will be grammatically correct.

This is a complex one, but after transforming it into active voice my conclusion is A. "They think that the horses have been electrocuted" sounds right, whereas "they thought the horses have been electrocuted" doesn't make sense. So the first one should be "are thought". Therefore, the cable "was dug up", no need for past perfect since there is nor a previous action (as in standard present perfect use) nor this is passive (it's an active tense). I hope this helps

Both options are grammatically correct. This is a bad question.

A is correct. The second one's phrase "had been dug up" implies that the digging (and hence the cause of death of the horses) has already happened, but if that were true then you wouldn't say the horses "were thought" to have died, because you would know for sure.

I'd go with A, as it feels like an excerpt that might come out of a report that's happening the day after the incident. E feels like the incident had happened some significant time ago, which doesn't track with "yesterday"

Only A can work, E is incorrect. The “are thought” and “were thought” can both work here, but the answer is in the second word. When a sentence has a specific time like “yesterday”, “last summer” or “in 1972”, you cannot use “have/had been”, only “was/were”. So, it has been dug up, but it was dug up yesterday. Similarly, “I was in Spain last year” but “I have been to Spain” if we don’t have a specified time. Edit: also, now that I look at it, “are thought” works much better than “were thought” because “are thought” means they still think that, but “were thought” means they no longer think that. Here we need more context, “are thought” works better, but “were thought” would fit here if the investigators concluded the horses weren’t electrocuted there, so they don’t believe that anymore.

With "e", it's using a perfect tense (in this case, last perfect) with a specified time (yesterday). This is wrong. For example, you can't say "They have left two hours ago."

I’m pretty sure neither are wrong. We need to know more. Namely, what has happened since then? Do we STILL think the horses had been electrocuted?

What in the world

It's most likely "a" here, but "e" is also grammatically correct and could be right in some contexts and if more information was given. This seems like an excerpt from a news article, so "are thought" is describing the situation today (people think the horses were electrocuted), and what happened yesterday (the cable was dug up.) However, if some other *more recent* information had been given in a previous paragraph or sentence, then "e" could work. For example: "A piece of faulty cable has today been ruled out as the cause of death of two horses. The electricity cable in the race field where two horses were thought to have been electrocuted had been dug up yesterday by investigators."

\# "the race field" WAT

I get why ud confuse the two. The choice is A. Because “Are thought” is a passive construction used to describe an action believed to have happened in the past.

¡Hola! **La opción correcta es la E: 'were thought / had been dug up'.** La frase habla de algo que ocurrió en el pasado, por lo que se utiliza el tiempo pasado ("were thought") y el pasado perfecto ("had been dug up") para indicar que la acción de cavar ocurrió antes del momento en que se pensó en ello." ¡Espero que sea útil!

If you can't decide go for c

A

A makes sense. In E, they have to have stopped thinking the horses were electrocuted in the field.

The electricity cable ~~in the race field~~ ~~where two horses --- to have been electrocuted~~ **WAS DUG UP** *yesterday* by investigators. First, get rid of all the unnecessary stuff like prepositional phrases and extra clauses in the subject. That leaves you with: "The electricity cable --- yesterday by investigators." So the main verb has to be "was dug up" because as you can see, there's "yesterday" and "by investigators" after the verb slot. So, that means it's passive in the past tense. The answer is A. EZ

Agree, not common to use "had been" with a concrete time like this. Unrelated: "electricity cable" is not common North American idiom. "Electrical" or "electric" would be normal. Usage may be different in other locales.

A. "Yesterday" is a dead giveaway. Whenever you have a time adverb you need to use simple past/present.

Couldn’t e be used to express this meaning? — We thought the two horses were electrocuted there, but it’s actually not the case; we no longer think so, because we learned that, before the accident happened (probably sometime today), the cable had been dug up (so it could not be the cause of the accident)

In most germanic languages, the preterite form is used for recent past. Here, yesterday is very recent, hence the preterite form is correct, and not the preterite perfect form.

me think does A

Jesus though what a creatively grim topic

My vote is for F) thought / was dug up

It’s A. B doesn’t work. The second blank requires passive voice: the cable didn’t dig up, it was dug up. C could be right in the first blank, but the using the present indicative in the second blank is something you’d only say in a newspaper headline. That’s inconsistent with the style of the rest. D is kind of a hot mess. Here again we’ve got the cable doing the digging. E is wrong because the digging up of the cable is placed further in the past than the electrocution of the horses. (Had been vs has been) But they just dug it up yesterday so no, this can’t be right. Also, it’s an electric cable or a power cable. Not an “electricity cable.”

"Was" is the past tense of the verb "to be," used to describe a state or condition in the past, while "had" is the past tense and past participle of "to have," indicating a past action or possession, often used to form the past perfect tense. Here's a more detailed breakdown: "Was" Function: "Was" is used to describe a state or condition that existed in the past. Examples: "I was at the park yesterday." (describing a state of being in a place) "She was tired after working all day." (describing a state of being) Tense: "Was" is part of the simple past tense. "Had" Function: "Had" is used to indicate a past action or possession, or to form the past perfect tense. Examples: "I had a wonderful time at the concert." (past possession of a good time) "She had already finished her homework when I arrived." (past action before another past action, using the past perfect tense) Tense: "Had" is part of the past perfect tense when used with a past participle (e.g., "had finished"). All of the examples are long and dragged out and could be edited for clarification and simplicity. Both are relatively correct. I choose 'a' because it's shorter and means about the same.

Both are grammatically correct, but only A makes logical sense in the context.  E would imply that investigators dug up the cable before the horses were electrocuted, and that that's what caused them to be electrocuted.  A is the answer they're looking for.

Neither are right. It should be: are thought / have been dug up All in all: The electricity cable in the rice field - where the two horses **are thought** to have been electrocuted - **have been dug up** yesterday by the investigators.