The touts … arrested during the riot.

Analyze the question

You need the word that correctly completes the sentence: "The touts ____ arrested during the riot." This tests subject-verb agreement and tense.

Explain the concept

A verb must agree with its subject in number:

• Singular subject → singular verb (the boy was)
• Plural subject → plural verb (the boys were)

The tense must also match the time of the action. The phrase "during the riot" shows the event is finished, so the past tense is needed.

Step-by-step solution

1. Find the subject: "touts". The "-s" ending shows it is plural (more than one tout).
2. Find the tense: "during the riot" and "arrested" point to a past event, so we need a past-tense form of "to be" to make the passive "were arrested".
3. Check each option: • A. were: plural, past tense. Correct. • B. was: past tense, but singular. It does not agree with "touts". • C. where: this is a word about place, not a verb. It makes no sense here. • D. is: singular and present tense. Wrong on both counts.

Answer: The touts were arrested during the riot.

Exam tip

Look at the noun first: if it ends in "-s" (and is not an irregular noun), it is usually plural and needs "were" or "are". Also watch out for "were" and "where". They sound similar but "were" is a verb and "where" asks about place. JAMB often uses such look-alike words as distractors.