Choose the construction that indicates a scheduled or intended past arrangement that did not materialize:
The visiting astrophysicist ________ the plenary lecture on gravitational radiation, but sudden flight cancellations prevented his arrival.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. was to have delivered
Answer: was to have delivered. Why not the others: 'was delivering' describes an ongoing continuous past action that was actively taking place; 'delivered' asserts that the lecture was successfully completed; 'would deliver' expresses habitual past action or future-in-the-past without signaling the failure of the arrangement.
- Step 1: Determine the intended meaning: the sentence describes a past formal arrangement or schedule that was planned but ultimately unfulfilled due to an intervening event.
- Step 2: In formal academic syntax, an unfulfilled past arrangement is expressed using 'was/were to have + past participle' ('was to have delivered').
Practise more Advanced Conditionals, Inverted Conditionals, and Modality.
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