Choose the sentence that correctly employs the conditional structure for an unreal past counterfactual condition (Third Conditional):
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: C. If the engineers had detected the stress fracture earlier, the turbine failure would have been prevented.
- Step 1: The Third Conditional expresses hypothetical past events and their imaginary outcomes.
- Step 2: The standard grammatical structure is: 'If + past perfect (had + past participle), ... would/could/might + have + past participle'.
- Step 3: Here: 'If the engineers had detected..., the failure would have been prevented.'
Answer
If the engineers had detected the stress fracture earlier, the turbine failure would have been prevented.
Why not the others: Sentence 2 incorrectly pairs simple past ('detected') with 'would have been'; Sentence 3 incorrectly uses future 'will be'; Sentence 4 uses 'would have' in the if-clause, a common colloquial error.
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