3 The statue ____________ (bury) for two thousand years before it ____________ (uncover) during an archaeological dig.

Passive Voice Explanation

This sentence describes two past actions. The first action (burying) happened before the second action (uncovering). We need to use the past perfect passive for the earlier action and the simple past passive for the later action.

Solution:

Part 1: (bury)

• The action of burying the statue happened first and continued for two thousand years.
• We need the past perfect passive: 'had been' + past participle.
• The past participle of 'bury' is 'buried'.
• So, it should be 'had been buried'.

Part 2: (uncover)

• The action of uncovering happened later.
• We need the simple past passive: 'was/were' + past participle.
• The past participle of 'uncover' is 'uncovered'.
• Since the subject 'it' refers to 'the statue' (singular), we use 'was'.
• So, it should be 'was uncovered'.

Answer: had been buried, was uncovered