Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumVerb Tense and Consistency

In January 1960, oceanographer Jacques Piccard and Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh boarded the bathyscaphe *Trieste* to attempt a historic descent to the deepest known point in the Earth's oceans: the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. As they descended into the abyss, the temperature inside the cabin dropped significantly, and a window pane cracked under the immense pressure. Despite these dangers, the team of intrepid explorers were observing a surprising variety of marine life, documented their findings, and began their ascent back to the surface.

Which choice best maintains a consistent and logical verb tense in the passage?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. observedAnswer
  3. C
    observing
  4. D
    observes

Answer

observed
The correct answer 'observed' is in the simple past tense, which matches the past-tense verbs throughout the passage ('boarded', 'descended', 'dropped', 'cracked') and maintains parallel structure with the other verbs in the series ('documented' and 'began').

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the overall tense of the surrounding context by examining other verbs in the paragraph.
The verbs 'boarded', 'descended', 'dropped', 'cracked', 'documented', and 'began' establish that the passage is written in the past tense.
Maintaining consistent verb tense is necessary to prevent illogical shifts in time.
2
Determine the grammatical function of the underlined verb within its clause and check for parallel structure.
The verb is the first element in a list of actions performed by the subject: '...the team... [verb] a surprising variety of marine life, documented their findings, and began their ascent.' This requires a simple past-tense verb to maintain parallelism with 'documented' and 'began'.
Items in a list or series must share the same grammatical form.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the simple past-tense verb that also agrees in number with the subject.
The simple past-tense verb 'observed' fits perfectly. The original phrase 'were observing' incorrectly uses the plural 'were' to agree with 'explorers' rather than the singular subject 'team'.
Verbs must agree with their true subject rather than nouns in intervening phrases.

Key Concept

Verb Tense and Consistency
Estimated Time:1m 0s
Rate this question

Topics

Verb Tense and Consistency

More questions from this topic