Choose the grammatically correct structure to complete the conditional sentence:
________ the secondary trial data earlier, the pharmacological board would have withheld emergency market approval.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. Had the safety investigators scrutinized
Answer: Had the safety investigators scrutinized. Why not the others: 'If the board scrutinized' represents a second conditional form with simple past that mismatches the past perfect consequence 'would have withheld'; 'Were the investigators scrutinizing' expresses a hypothetical present continuous condition; 'Should the investigators have scrutinized' expresses an ungrammatical hybrid of open condition and past modal structure.
- Step 1: Determine the conditional type required by the main clause: 'would have withheld' indicates a third conditional structure describing an unreal past situation with past counterfactual consequences.
- Step 2: In formal academic register, conditional inversion omits 'if' and fronts the auxiliary 'Had', followed by the subject and past participle: 'Had the safety investigators scrutinized'.
Practise more Advanced Syntax, Inversions, Cleft Sentences, and Subjunctive Structures.
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