Question

A number of boys was caught copying or were caught copying?The crew were taken prisoners or was taken prisoners

Answer 1

1.a number of boys were caught copying
the bottom part doesn't make sense to me

Answer 2

unless you mean the crew was taken as prisoners

Answer 3

A number of boys were caught copying. The crew were taken prisoners.

Answer 4

crew indicates multiple people, and using was sounds retarded, so i'm going with were