Take a look at the sentence again:
The message light on the phone was blinking. Eight appointments and an afternoon
meeting filled the calendar. A stack of top-priority work _________ in the
middle of the desk. Valerie knew that lunch would be a bottled water and
a handful of antacid tablets.
The stack of work rested in the middle of the desk. Thus, you need a form of lie. Since the sentence is past tense, you need the simple past form. Consult the table below or review the rules.
Lied, the answer you chose, does not appear on the table; lied is a spelling error.
| Infinitive | Definition | Simple Present | Simple Past | Past Participle | Present Participle |
| to lay | to put something down | lay(s) | laid | laid | laying |
| to lie | to rest or recline | lie(s) | lay | lain | lying |