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Lcchang Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

TOEIC Error Recognition

1font00Her mother, who (A) 01u00passed away02u00 last year, (B) 01u00must be02u00 a remarkable woman if she (C) 01u00could take02u00 care of a house, raise five children, and (D) 01u00work02u00 at her family's store at the same time.02font02br
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00The given answer says B is wrong and "01font00must be02font00" needs to be changed to "01font00must have been02font00". However, I think if we change "01font00must be02font00" to "01font00must have been02font00" which become a structure in past perfect tense, there will be no reason not to change "01font00if she could take care of" 00to00 "if she had been able to take care of" 00or00 "if she could have taken care of" 02font00in order to have the whole sentence consistent in conditional statement for things happened in the past. 02br
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00Please advise on this.02br
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00LCChang0-
  

Top answer

0 It's clear that she didn't take care of a house, raise five chilren and work at her family's store 01i 00after02i 00she died, so you don't need to use a past perfect tense here 050010id1

— NewPhilologist

  • 0 It's clear that she didn't take care of a house, raise five chilren and work at her family's store 01i 00after02i 00she died, so you don't need to use a past perfect tense here 050010id1
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6 Answers
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0 It's clear that she didn't take care of a house, raise five chilren and work at her family's store 01i00after02i00she died, so you don't need to use a past perfect tense here 050010id1
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01cite10NewPhilologist12cite10It's clear that she didn't take care of a house, raise five children and work at her family's store 11i10after12i10she died, so you don't need to use a past perfect tense here 15012br
12blockquote
10Sorry but I just feel like a little inconsistency here i
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0>The given answer says B is wrong and "01font00must be02font00" needs to be changed to "01font00must have been02font00".02br
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01b00They are right02b00 and you just have to listen to it and learn it this way. No inconsistency in their case. 02br
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0She is dead, so she cannot BE anything any more. You must change B to 01i00must have been02i00. Always go with the simplest answer. 02br
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00Yes, you COULD go on and change the tenses of all the others to "took, raised, and worked" or "could have taken, raised, and worked." But you don't have to - it's semantically obvious what the sequence of time
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0 The sentence is complicated by the fact that you can make the past of 01i00can02i00 by using 01i00could02i00, but you have to make the past of 01i00must02i00 by using 01i00must have02i00. And 01i00must have been02i00 is not a past perfect tense, by the way. It's one of the mod
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0 01blockquote
01cite10CalifJim12cite10The sentence is complicated by the fact that you can make the past of 11i10can12i10 by using 11i10could12i10, but you have to make the past of 11i10must12i10 by using 11i10must have12i10. And 11i10must have been
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