Verb Tense Questions

In considering verb tense, we take note of the context in which the particular verb is set. In what time is the action happening? What time markers help us answer that question? In this case, the phrase “the day before” sheds the most light. We typically only use that phrase when already speaking in the past tense; there is an action, and something that happened a day before that action. If the action were happening in the present, it would make little sense to say “the day before”; rather, we could simply say “yesterday”.

For that reason, we can rule out the present tense answer (“returns”), but that verb also fails to agree with the plural subject “students”, so it is doubly rejected. “Returning” can’t work because we need a main verb for the sentence and an “-ing” form cannot function as a main verb. “Will have returned” is interesting; we can indeed speak of “the day before” if we are looking into the future. For example, we might say, “On Saturday I will take the CLT; the day before, I’ll make sure to get some good rest.” But in this case, a person would have to be a prophet to know in advance that the students will win the state championship! Not to mention the other events the sentence describes … so if there is a better choice, we should choose it.

There is indeed a better choice: the simple past tense. “The students returned …” is by far the most natural option, describing what a victory already won and the response to the victory. The answer is B.

In order to answer this question, we need to first unravel the complicated syntax of the sentence. The subject of the verb “baffle” (in some form) is not a single word but rather the entire phrase “what causes the fascinating patterns of migrating starlings.” We know this because if we ask the question, In this sentence, what baffles scientists?, that entire phrase is the answer.

So, something is baffling or did baffle the scientists, but we still haven’t answered the tense question. The phrase “for years” helps us get there, as does the present tense “they believe.” The latter shows us that we are sitting with the scientists in the present time, but the “for years” reveals that the past time is involved as well. Something has been going on and is still going on. For this kind of action, we need the tense known as the present perfect, which uses the words “has” or “have”.

So, although the present tense answers (“baffles” and “is baffling”) might seem good at first, it doesn’t make sense to say that something “baffles for years.” Since this “baffling” started in the past and endures into the present, we must choose answer B.

This question may seem simple at first, because “She erased her past …” This is where the DIRECT method’s reminder to read the whole sentence becomes a vital instruction. If we opt for “She erased …” we have a problem, because “ushered”, later in the sentence, also sounds like the main verb in the sentence. We can’t have two main verbs competing with each other to be the heart of the sentence!

This realization opens our minds to the other choices. “Erased” and “erase”, though, don’t make much sense, because this is the beginning of the sentence, and there would be no subject to show us who is doing the erasing. So we must select what is known as a gerund: a verbal form acting as a noun. This accords with the sentence because, if we understand the whole structure, we see that there needs to be a subject for “ushered”. Who or what is doing the ushering? As it turns out, it is “erasing” that does the action; “erasing” is what changed things for the singer. The answer is ““D””.

The answer is C. It may not be completely clear from this sentence alone that we want an answer in the simple past tense. The way the verb forms “being over” and “swept away” lead into this main verb, it is possible that the narration is in the present tense. With this uncertainty in mind, we keep reading. Once the next sentence gives us verbs like “obtained”, “was”, and “became”, it is clear that “divided” is best here. “Divide” would be present tense, which isn’t consistent, and “dividing” isn’t a main verb at all. “Will have divided,” in the future perfect tense, is an unlikely answer, as this tense is used only in rare circumstances (circumstances that must begin the future tense, a tense we clearly don’t have here).

The answer is A. This question is tricky because the desired tense is an unusual form. Let’s explore the context. This is a long sentence, but the most important context is just a few words before the underlined portion: the word “proviso”. The phrase “with the proviso … that” is a rather old-fashioned way of saying what we might rephrase as “on one condition … that”. For example, “I’ll do it, but on one condition: that you ____.” The verb to put in that blank technically goes in what is called the subjunctive mood, a form used to express possibility or uncertainty. That is the idea here: people were given to a “master” with the condition that he raise them Catholic. One way to phrase this subjunctive mood is with the verbal form “should”. That is the only valid option here.

That may seem quite difficult, but keep in mind that you can always use process of elimination. “Sees” would move the narration to present tense, which seems unlikely. “Will see,” the future tense, is even less likely. And “he seen” is not even a legal English form. So even though “should see” might make you feel uncertain about the answer, it is indeed the only one that fits the context.

The answer is B. This is a case where the other verbs in the sentence help us. It might initially seem like “see” is a good choice, but a few words later we encounter past tense form “felt”. These two verbs seem to be in parallel structure, so we might expect the right answer to be “saw”. But since that is not an option, what is our past tense choice? “Having seen” puts the action in the past (with a sense that the effects come into the present), and it sets up the narrative to use the main verb “cannot be forgotten” later in the paragraph. The idea is: now that we have seen and felt this, we cannot forget it. “Will have seen” brings in a future idea that is foreign to the context, and “sawn” is actually the past participle of the verb to “saw”, as in what you do with wood. The CLT is not above putting in verbs that sound right but that don’t even mean the same thing as the right answer!

The answer is C. Did you catch how this verb at the very beginning of the sentence is being used? A major hint is the colon following a few words later (remember the “here it is!” aspect of the colon?). That’s a hint the verb here is an imperative; in other words, it is a request or command. The writer is telling the reader to “take” something, meaning that C is the correct choice. The way the sentence is structure, the clause before the colon needs to be a complete independent clause. This takes out “taking” and “taken” as possible answers. But “took” would be a past tense form that would not make sense, not least because it would not be clear who the subject of “took” is supposed to be.

The answer is A. This is a tough question that requires keeping the whole context in mind. The main verb in the first part of the sentence is “exercised”, so the action is generally in the past. But this is a compound sentence, as indicated by “and”, so we should expect another past tense verb to connect with “exercised” and extend the narration. This makes “diverted” a very tempting choice, but if you keep reading, you’ll see that the main verb of the second part of the compound sentence (before the semicolon) is “did”. It doesn’t quite work to use “diverted” before “did … improve”, without a conjunction like “and” or “but” to join them.

We can rule out the noun form “diversion,” as this clause clearly calls for a verb (the object of the verb is “themselves”). But “divert” would shift the tense to present and would also not go with “did improve” later in the sentence. An “-ing” form like “diverting” is best because this kind of form can modify the form “did improve”. In other words, the “diverting” (entertaining) themselves happened at the same time as the action described by “did … improve”.