Question

During the 19th century, Charles Dickens ______ one of the most famous British novelists. has become became becomes had become would became

Answer 1

The blank required Simple Past Tense form of the verb.

Simple Past Tense is used to :

a)       talk about actions which occurred at regular intervals in the past.
e.g. Last year I drove to Ambala once a month.

b)      to talk about situations which existed for a period of time in the past.
e.g. Thousands of years ago humans lived in caves.

c)        Talk about non-continuous actions which occurred at a definite time in the past. e.g. India launched Mars Orbiter Mission in 2013.

Answer 2

The blank in this sentence must be filled with a simple past tense form that talks about incidents of the past. Thus, the answer for this question is became.

During the 19th century, Charles Dickens became one of the most famous British novelists.