1000 SC, Q.118

[aficionado]

118.Art museums do not usually think of their collections as capital or consider the interest income that would be generated if a portion of the capital would have been invested in another form.
(A) be generated if a portion of the capital would have been
(B) have been generated if a portion of the capital would have been
(C) be generated if a portion of the capital were
(D) be generated if a portion of the capital was
(E) be generated if a portion of the capital had been

[jayhawk2001]

The mood of the sentence is subjunctive i.e. "if a portion of the capital ...".

"Were" best suits such a clause. Hence answer should be C

[aficionado]

thanks a lot.

[reply2spg]

56 seconds

C is correct because of subjunctive mood

[diebeatsthegmat]

The mood of the sentence is subjunctive i.e. "if a portion of the capital ...".

"Were" best suits such a clause. Hence answer should be C

hey, dont say thanks alot just post the answer. is the answer C?

[tomada]

I need to improve at discerning between "was" and "were". I was able to narrow down the choices to 'C' and 'D', but can anyone explain why one is better than the other in this sentence?

[[email protected]]

Hi Tomada! the sentence represents a future event that has not happened and is uncertain to happen.
i.e Interest income that would be generated in the future (you dont know when and you are also uncertain of those interest incomes). Also the use of 'if' in the second half of the sentence denotes that the mood of the sentence is subjuctive. eg: If I were there, I would have never allowed it to happen. In the same way, if a portion of the income were invested in another form......

I hope this really helped you tomada. Also for your reference please go through Sahil's notes on subjuctive mood. It is very nicely given......