Sentence Correction

Although the Supreme Court ruled as long ago as 1880 that Blacks could not be excluded outright from jury service, nearly a century of case-by-case adjudication has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be drawn from a fair cross section of the community.

(A) has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be
(B) was necessary for developing and enforcing the principle of all juries being
(C) was to be necessary in developing and enforcing the principle of all juries to be
(D) is necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be
(E) will be necessary for developing and enforcing the principle of all juries being

OA A

Hi simplyjat!

This one is easiest if you think of the idiom "necesary to". Only A and D have the correct idiom.

Now, between A and D, A uses the present perfect "has been", whereas D uses the simple present "is". We want to say that this century of case-by-case adjudication started in the past and continues to today, so the present perfect is appropriate. Therefore, A is correct.

I am having a really hard time with idioms. Now I will remember "necessary to" Thanks a lot

simplyjat wrote:I am having a really hard time with idioms. Now I will remember "necessary to" Thanks a lot

I think we can use necessary to as well as necessary for ........
eg....
Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?
Parts and accessories necessary for safe operation....
Viral counts necessary for gauging health of children with HIV......

So If option A is changed to
" was necessary for developing and enforcing the principle that all juries must be "
Will option A still be correct?

Thanks

Onell wrote:

simplyjat wrote:I am having a really hard time with idioms. Now I will remember "necessary to" Thanks a lot

I think we can use necessary to as well as necessary for ........
eg....
Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?
Parts and accessories necessary for safe operation....
Viral counts necessary for gauging health of children with HIV......

So If option A is changed to
" was necessary for developing and enforcing the principle that all juries must be "
Will option A still be correct?

Thanks

Totally agree with you.
"necessary for" is also a correct usage & I think "B" should be the right answer.
Also the process of "case by case adjudication" was over in 1980 & it's not that it is still continued
Hence we need to use simple past & not present continuous.
Plz correct me if I am wrong.

For me it was easier to think in terms of tenses about this question. The author starts with an event that occurred in the past and continues with another event that is still going on. Therefore, we can discard D and E. C is idiomatically incorrect- 'was to be necessary'. Between A and B, taking into consideration the meaning of the sentence and the sequence of tenses (which is necessary here), obviously the answer is A. B is full of gerunds + 'being' and does not pass the 'tense test' as well.

(B) was necessary for developing and enforcing the principle of all juries being

Please look at other statements.
They needed a century of case-by-case adjudication, to (develop and enforce)implant the principle of selecting the juries from fair sections of the society.

This is the intended meaning.
One more point.
"Being is almost always wrong". It's use is generally wordy...Moreover the sentence construction is awkward.

Imagine a situation where u convey the same statement to the native speaker. Will it be better to use the (A)?? rather than (B)???

I suppose "Necessary to" is not being tested in this statement. Rather the conciseness of the statement and the intended meaning ,which are very clear in Option (A).

I believe the reason why A is correct is because of the command subjunctive usage because of the enforcing of the principal that....