Sentence Correction

One of Arthur Jessop's first acts as president of the FHA was to deny a request from the private sector that federal home loan programs should be expanded to cover houses not conforming to civil construction codes.

　　(A) should be expanded to cover houses not conforming to

　　(B) be expanded to cover houses not conforming to

　　(C) should be expand to cover houses not conforming with

　　(D) would have been expanded to cover houses not conforming to

　　(E) had to be expanded to cover houses not conforming with

IMO: E

Is past perfect necessary here?

IMO B

A and C use "should", which does not make sense in the context of the sentence.

B uses subjunctive well. We have a request, and the verb that expresses that request should be in subjunctive mood.

D uses conditional present perfect "would have been expanded." This does not fit the sequence of events since we already have a past tense event.


E doesn't use past perfect but rather the possessive "had." However, since we need subjunctive, "had to be" does not work.

so.... there's no correct answer?

alex.gellatly wrote:so.... there's no correct answer?

Look at my explanation for B again

OA is B

its more like a command form so better to use BE + expanded "root form" B