I enjoyed watching everyone at the beach. Some people were playing volleyball, while others were picnicking. Some were listening to music, some were sleeping, and the others were just lying in the sun. The other people were swimming in the surf. In this paragraph, we see a variety of activities taking place at the beach. The sentence structure indicates that there are multiple groups of people engaged in different activities. The initial sentence sets the stage by expressing the enjoyment of watching everyone at the beach. The first blank, "___(1)___ were picnicking," requires a pronoun to refer to the people who were not playing volleyball. The correct answer is "others," as it is a pronoun indicating a different group of people. "The others" could also be a possible answer, but it would make the sentence overly specific and limit the diversity of activities being described. "The other" and "others" are incorrect as they do not agree grammatically with the verb "were." The second blank, "___(2)___ were just lying in the sun," also requires a pronoun to refer to a different group of people. The correct answer is "others," as it indicates a distinct group from the people who were either playing volleyball or picnicking. "The other" and "the others" are incorrect as they either do not agree grammatically with the verb "were" or would make the sentence overly specific. The third blank, "___(3)___ people were swimming in the surf," requires a determiner before the noun "people." The correct answer is "other," as it is a determiner indicating a different group of people. "Others" would also be acceptable in this context. "The other" and "the others" are incorrect as they would either make the sentence overly specific or do not agree grammatically with the verb "were." To summarize, the correct answers for the blanks are: (1) B. other (2) A. others (3) B. Other