My brother and I pulled into the driveway. I peered up and thought it was suspicious that every shade in the house was drawn. The house had been unusually dark for early evening. As my brother unlocked the front door, I heard some hushed whispers. Suddenly, about ten of my friends and my parents jumped out and yelled, “Surprise!” Which is the best replacement for the underlined sentence?
The house was unusually dark for early evening.
The house will be unusually dark for early evening.
The house has been unusually dark for early evening.
The house was being unusually dark for early evening.

Read this paragraph from chapter 5 of the prince. there are, for example, the spartans and the romans. the spartans held athens and thebes, establishing there an oligarchy: nevertheless they lost them. the romans, in order to hold capua, carthage, and numantia, dismantled them, and did not lose them. they wished to hold greece as the spartans held it, making it free and permitting its laws, and did not succeed. so to hold it they were compelled to dismantle many cities in the country, for in truth there is no safe way to retain them otherwise than by ruining them. and he who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not destroy it, may expect to be destroyed by it, for in rebellion it has always the watchword of liberty and its ancient privileges as a rallying point, which neither time nor benefits will ever cause it to forget. and whatever you may do or provide against, they never forget that name or their privileges unless they are disunited or dispersed, but at every chance they immediately rally to them, as pisa after the hundred years she had been held in bondage by the florentines. what idea is stressed in the passage? the desire for liberty the establishment of an oligarchy the dismantling of an acquired state the tendency toward rebellion