Multiple choice

Directions: In the following sentence, three substitutions are given for each italicised part. If one of them is better than the italicised part, that should be your answer. If none of the substitution improves the sentence, the answer should be (4).

The sun set before we reached the village.

  1. would have set

  2. would set

  3. had set

  4. No improvement
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

The sentence has two events in the past: reaching the village and the sun setting. Since the sun set BEFORE they reached the village, we use the past perfect 'had set' to show the earlier action. Simple past 'set' doesn't establish the sequence correctly. The modal forms don't fit.

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