Question

By the time he was eighteen years old, Peter ______to make a living and support his family.

• A. begins
• B. began
• C. started beginning
• D. would begin

Hint:

Match verb tense with the time marker in the sentence. "Was eighteen" (past) → "began" (past).

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

The sentence is in past tense ("By the time he was eighteen"). Hence the correct verb form is "began." "Begins" is present tense (wrong), "started beginning" is awkward and redundant, "would begin" implies future in the past, which is not intended here. \[ \Rightarrow \boxed{\text{began}} \]

Answer 2

Anchor the sentence on its timeline: "By the time he was eighteen" fixes the event firmly in the past, so every verb in the sentence must agree with that past setting.

1. Option 1 (begins): Present tense, clashing with the past-tense anchor "was eighteen."
2. Option 2 (began): Simple past tense, matching the past-tense anchor exactly.
3. Option 3 (started beginning): Doubles up two verbs with overlapping meaning, producing an awkward, non-standard construction.
4. Option 4 (would begin): Suggests a future action viewed from a past point, which isn't the intended meaning here, since the action already happened by eighteen.

Only the simple past tense fits the fixed past timeline set up by "By the time he was eighteen."

Hence, the correct answer is began.