Fill in the blanks: Prerna and Sushil (i) ___________ (has/have/had) spent years together. On growing up they (ii) ___________ (had got/have got/got) separated and went their own ways. Sushil (iii) ___________ (becomes/became/had become) a well-known sports personality...

This question tests mastery of English tenses within a narrative context. All three blanks require past tense forms because the entire passage describes events that have already occurred. For blank (i), 'had' is correct because 'had spent years together' uses the past perfect tense to describe an action (spending years together) that was completed before the subsequent event (getting separated). This is a classic use of past perfect: showing that one past action preceded another. For blank (ii), 'got' is the simple past tense, correct because the separation is a specific event at a defined time ('on growing up'). 'Had got' would be incorrect because we do not need another layer of past perfect here -- the separation is the main narrative event, not a prior one. 'Have got' would break the past tense frame entirely. For blank (iii), 'became' is simple past, matching the narrative timeline. 'Becomes' would shift to present tense, breaking consistency. 'Had become' would imply Sushil became famous before the separation, which contradicts the chronological flow. The key exam strategy for tense questions is to first identify the overall time frame of the passage (past, present, or mixed), then determine the sequence of events to choose between simple past and past perfect.