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Maria Bonaparte

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by GmatKiss » Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:51 am
Maria Bonaparte put up the ransom that the Nazis insisted on if Freud was to be allowed to leave Vienna.

a) if Freud was to be allowed

b) if Freud were allowed

c) should Freud be allowed

d) if they will allow Freud

e) should allowance be made for Freud
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by Bill@VeritasPrep » Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:38 am
A--not great, but I can't find anything particularly wrong with it.

B--uses subjunctive incorrectly. For "if/then" statements, we need a conditional verb for the consequence of the hypothetical.

C--the use of "should" to mean "if" is incorrect

D--no need to use the future tense "will" since we're talking about a past event

E--"allowance be made" is awkward

I'd keep the original, but I don't really like it.
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by hamedd » Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:19 am
I thought we were supposed to use "were" instead of "was" in conditional sentences.
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:46 am
hamedd wrote:I thought we were supposed to use "were" instead of "was" in conditional sentences.
If you have a condition that follows. The structure is "if *subjunctive*, then *conditional*" Like so:

If I were president, NASA would have a bigger budget.
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