Choose the grammatically standard verb form following the archaic/formal conjunction 'lest':
The laboratory director ordered the immediate refrigeration of the biological cultures lest they ________ during the power transition.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. deteriorate
Answer: deteriorate. Why not the others: 'deteriorated' uses past indicative inflection; 'would deteriorate' introduces conditional would where the mandative/subjunctive base is required; 'will deteriorate' uses future indicative, violating subjunctive constraints.
- Step 1: Identify the conjunction 'lest': in formal academic and literary English, 'lest' introduces a negative purpose clause ('to prevent the possibility that').
- Step 2: The verb governed by 'lest' takes either the base subjunctive form (e.g., 'deteriorate') or 'should + base verb'.
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