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Barrons practice examination 1
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Because of his broken hip, John Jones has not and possibly never will be able to run the mile again.

(a) Has not and possibly never will be able to run
(b) has not and possibly will never be able to run
(c) has not been and possibly never would be able to run
(d) has not and possibly never would be able to run
(e) has not been able to run and possibly never will be able to run

the answer is e. I put the answer c. Why can't it be the answer c????
Re: Barrons practice examination 1
mridul12
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Because " has " is present tense, you do need "will" not the would .

" I am not grammar expert". Instructors can shed some more light on this issue.

Anonymous wrote:
Because of his broken hip, John Jones has not and possibly never will be able to run the mile again.

(a) Has not and possibly never will be able to run
(b) has not and possibly will never be able to run
(c) has not been and possibly never would be able to run
(d) has not and possibly never would be able to run
(e) has not been able to run and possibly never will be able to run

the answer is e. I put the answer c. Why can't it be the answer c????
Stacey Koprince
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Joined: 06 Mar 2007
Posts: 2623
Location: San Francisco
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Would indicates a conditional tense - in this case, it means that he never would be able to run if some other (unspecified) thing were to happen first. That's not what the sentence is trying to say - he's already broken his hip. There's no "if" about it. Therefore, we have to use the standard future tense "will."
Barrons practice examination 1
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