Tense of the sentence

[vips2cool]

The sentence is
"In the most common procedure for harvesting forage crops such as alfalfa, as much as 20 percent of the leaf and small-stem material, which is the most nutritious of all the parts of the plant, shattered and fell to the ground. "

The correct replacement to the underlined part as per the solution is "the parts of the plant which were most nutritious, will shatter and fall"

However there was another option "the parts of the plant which are most nutritious, shatter and fall"

Why is the former correct over the latter.

[Danielle]

Both of those sentence corrections are grammatically correct. The reason the past tense one is correct is because you have to pick the best answer given, not the correct answer. The thing that makes one answer correct over the other is that in the original sentence, it is clear that the statements about the leaf and stem shattering, etc. are in past tense. It's better to pick the answer that preserves the original idea and intent of the sentence.

Hope that helped!

[vips2cool]

hmm think that makes some sense...thanks