This question is not testing verb tense, though. It's resting finite/nonfinite verbs (whether to use an active verb or not). Non-active verbs are verbs ending in "ing" and those preceded by "to". In this question, "helped" is the active verb, so the stuff between the 2 commas is extra information (a phrase) and you should use the ing verb there. C is an active verb because of the "was", so that's wrong. Check the 3rd video in the link below, and also helpful for all other concepts with their own videos: https://www.youtube.com/@JamesLuSAT/videos