Was told
Have been told
Told
Were told
Answer is Right!
Answer is Wrong!
The correct answer is: D. Were told
The sentence is in the past tense, so the verb must also be in the past tense. The past tense of “tell” is “told.” The subject of the sentence is “The Italian people,” which is plural. The verb “tell” agrees with the subject in number, so the correct verb form is “were told.”
The other options are incorrect because they are not in the past tense or they do not agree with the subject in number. Option A, “was told,” is in the singular past tense, but the subject is plural. Option B, “have been told,” is in the present perfect tense, but the sentence is about something that happened in the past. Option C, “told,” is the infinitive form of the verb, which is not used in this context.