Question

The spectators were spellbound at the thrilling sight and at the end, they could not held their applause in appreciation.

• A. withheld their aplause
• B. held their applauding
• C. hold their applaud
• D. No correction required

Hint:

After modals like "could," always use the base verb: "could not hold," not "could not held."

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

The verb form is wrong: "could not held" is incorrect. With modal verbs (could, should, might, etc.), the base form of the verb should be used.
Correct form: "could not hold their applause." Option (c) fits best (though with a spelling correction, "applaud" → "applause"). \[ \boxed{\text{hold their applause}} \]

Answer 2

Apply the modal-verb rule directly: after "could not," only the base form of the verb is grammatically possible, so eliminate any option that fails this test before considering spelling.

1. Option A: "withheld" is a past-tense form, not a base form, so "could not withheld" breaks the modal-verb rule.
2. Option B: "held" is also a past-tense form, and "applauding" changes the noun to a gerund; "could not held their applauding" is doubly incorrect.
3. Option C: "hold" is the correct base form required after "could not," satisfying the modal-verb rule, even though "applaud" should ideally read "applause."
4. Option D: the original "could not held" already breaks the modal-verb rule, so no correction is not an option.

Since option C is the only choice that supplies the grammatically required base-form verb after the modal, it is accepted as the intended correction.

Hence, the correct answer is hold their applaud.