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Complete the UFO enthusiast's wild blog post about last night's mysterious events by choosing the best grammatical fit for each gap.
_________________________ that the local mayor secretly met the extraterrestrials to discuss a peace treaty. Furthermore, the glowing spaceship _________________________ by terrified farmers ___________________________ into thin air just before dawn.
The correct answers are:
- It is rumored
- the glowing spaceship was reported
- to have vanished
Explanations:
- It is rumored: When using a "that" clause for passive reporting, we must use the dummy subject "It" (It + passive reporting verb + that + clause).
- was reported: The farmers did the reporting in the past, so the spaceship "was reported" (past passive).
- to have vanished: When the subject (the spaceship) is placed at the front of a passive reporting sentence, it must be followed by a "to-infinitive." Because the vanishing happened before or at the time of the reporting, we use the perfect infinitive ("to have vanished").