Choose the correct tense By the time Mike __ home, I __ dinner. had returned have just cooked returned cooked did return, was been cooking returned, had already cooked

The correct answer is "had returned, had already cooked."<br /><br />In this sentence, the phrase "By the time Mike had returned" indicates that Mike's return happened after another event, which is "I had already cooked dinner." The use of the past perfect tense "had already cooked" emphasizes that the cooking was completed before Mike's return.