South Africa . . . . . . . . all out before we knew it! A. was B. has C. have D. were

The correct answer is: was.

The sentence is in the past tense, so the verb must also be in the past tense. The verb “to be” has three forms in the past tense: was, were, and been. The correct form to use depends on the subject of the sentence. In this case, the subject is “South Africa”, which is singular. Therefore, the correct verb form is “was”.

The other options are incorrect because they are not in the past tense. The verb “has” is in the present tense, and the verbs “have” and “were” are in the past tense but are plural forms.

Here is a breakdown of each option:

• A. was is the correct answer. It is the past tense form of the verb “to be” and is used with singular subjects.
• B. has is in the present tense. It is the third person singular form of the verb “to have”.
• C. have is also in the present tense. It is the first person plural form of the verb “to have”.
• D. were is in the past tense. It is the plural form of the verb “to be”.