My mother … to my leaving the dishes unwashed last night

Analyze the question: The sentence is "My mother __ to my leaving the dishes unwashed last night." We need the correct idiom and the correct tense.

Explain the concept:

• The idiom is "take kindly to", meaning to like, accept or approve of something. It is normally used in the negative, e.g. "She did not take kindly to the criticism."
• An idiom uses the adverb kindly, not the adjective kind. So "take kind" is wrong.
• The time marker "last night" shows a past event, so we need the past simple: did not take, not "does not take".

Step-by-step solution:

1. Eliminate A and B: "take kind" is ungrammatical, because the idiom needs the adverb kindly.
2. Eliminate D: "does not take" is present tense, which clashes with "last night".
3. Check C: "did not take kindly" is past tense and uses the correct idiom.

Completed sentence: My mother did not take kindly to my leaving the dishes unwashed last night.

Tip: When you see an idiom question, first check the fixed phrase (take kindly to), then check the time expression (last night means past tense). Two quick checks can eliminate most options.