Word choice problem. Different opinion with my teacher This is a sentence which I have different opinion with my teacher, of course both of us are not native speaker. it is drawn from a jointly autho

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Word choice problem. Different opinion with my teacher This is a sentence which I have different opinion with my teacher, of course both of us are not native speaker. it is drawn from a jointly authored book. One of us could have been a plumber, a pilot, or a preacher, and the praise of research skills ( ) nearly as effective as if the source were Dr. Science himself. A. being B. was C. will be D. would have been which choice should be filled in the ( ) ? If someone knows this question please help me, i think it should be B. was, but apparently my teacher thinks it should be D. would have been Thanks for your help.

Jul 10, 2014 10:08 AM

Answers · 7

There is a rule of thumb called "verb tense consistency" which refers to keeping the same tense throughout a clause. The verb at the beginning of the sentence is "could have been" and the answer D "would have been" is a consistent continuation of this tense.

July 10, 2014

I'd agree with your teacher. It mirrors the third conditional in the first part of the sentence ( If one of us had a been a pilot .. the praise of research skills would have been nearly...) I actually think the phrase 'praise of research skills' sounds odd, but I'm satisfied with the tense.

July 10, 2014

I depends whether the research skills were actually praised or not. Because the sentence starts with "could have," it suggests a hypothetical situation, so D is the most likely answer.

July 10, 2014

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