To determine the correct word to fill in the blank, we need to understand the context of the sentence: "Many Tamil Speaking Sri Lankans _______ from the island to escape the military and its atrocities."
The sentence describes a past action, indicating that Tamil Speaking Sri Lankans left the island. We are dealing with a past action, so we need the past tense of the verb "flee." Let's evaluate each option:
- flown: This is the past participle of "fly," which means to travel through the air and does not fit the context.
- flee: This is the base form of the verb and does not indicate a past action.
- fled: This is the past tense of "flee," which is used to describe an action of running away taking place in the past. It fits the context perfectly.
- flew: This is the past tense of "fly," which does not match the context of people escaping from a place.
Based on this analysis, the correct choice is
fled, which is the past tense form needed for the given sentence context.