Sentence:  To many a Frenchman - they came 95 years ago , colonized , and stayed until Laos became independent in 1953 - the land had <WSD>been</WSD> even more delightfully tranquil than Tahiti . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)