From the options, choose the word(s) that best fill(s) the gap.
If the armed robbers _____ caught, they would have been lynched.
Answer Details
The word that best fills the gap is "had been."
"Had been" is the past perfect tense, which is used to describe an action that was completed before another action in the past. In this sentence, the action of the armed robbers being caught is the first action, and the second action is them being lynched. The past perfect tense emphasizes that the first action was completed before the second action occurred.
Therefore, the correct sentence is:
"If the armed robbers had been caught, they would have been lynched."