duongthang wrote:A historian attempting to predict in the 1870's which nation would take over world leadership from the British probably would/ have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been /quite wrong

a,
b,have guessed that it would have been bismarck's Prussia and he would be
c, have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and would be
d,guess Bismarck's Prussia and be
e,guess that it would be Bismarck's Prussia and would have been

why d is wrong?

I go for C. Clues are "in the 1870's" So...should not be simple past form of "would guess~" and "and be". Guessworks goes first and a fact of being wrong goes last. So C is better...any other thoughts?

IMO B.

D seems wrong as we are taking of past, 1870's

OA pls?

I would go for C.

Choice is narrowed down to B or C. I prefer C to B because the historian predicted something which would happen after he guessed.

"would have been bismarck's Prussia" seems to indicate that historian is predicting something in past... which does not make sense to me.

So C is better.

definitely choice between B and C, and finally C IMO too

can (D) be eliminated on grounds of parallelism ??

I think the question is more about verb tense rather than just parallelism.

I will go for A.
The original sentence is correct.

Historian is past and prediction was also done past but the fact they are wrong is proved after that.

whats the OA?

Thanks,
lvincy

My money on C.

I can't find anything wrong with A either... Confused between A and c. Need the OA.

I m confused between c and d

but i will go with C because would have sounds better

A is correct answer

it has verb tense(refer to pass tense) which is correct and parallel

I go with either C or D; though D is better and my final answer as explained below;

Been is the past participle for be
Be is the base form

So, choices containing 'been' (usually, been is accompanied by had as in had been) mean that The Historian's prediction had been incorrect. Whereas, the prediction 'was' and is 'still' incorrect. In fact there is no reason to choose a past participle here so we should go with the base verb i.e. be. [This blows off A and E]

Now, look at the sentence as an If....then construction.
If the historian had predicted, then he would have guessed [past perfect form]
In this sentence however,
In 1871, an historian attempting to predict, would guess [simple past form]

The latter seems better and is hence my answer is D.

In 1871, a person would have guessed " is correct. This is subjuctive in the past. So "would have done" is right

A is correct

Why is E wrong?