Sentence:  Mr. Blatz had been at least sober enough to remember to telephone and he turned out to <WSD>be</WSD> the greatest boon that had come into Mr. Crombie 's life since he moved to Highfield , in spite of the fact that he did n't work very fast or very long at a time , and he did n't like to work at all unless Mr. Crombie hung around and talked to him . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  be identical to; be someone or something