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Difficulty: HardVerb Tense and Consistency

In the early 1930s, during the height of the Great Depression, the U.S. government established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to provide jobs for unemployed young men. Members of the CCC lived in camps, wore uniforms, and worked on various environmental conservation projects. By the time the program ended in 1942, more than three million participants plant billions of trees and built thousands of public parks across the country.

Which choice most effectively establishes a consistent and grammatically correct sequence of verb tenses in the sentence?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. had plantedAnswer
  3. C
    were planting
  4. D
    have planted

Answer

had planted
The past perfect tense ('had planted') is the correct form to show that the action of planting trees was completed before a specific point of time in the past (the program ending in 1942).

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the surrounding context and time markers to identify the correct timeframe.
The paragraph describes historical events in the 1930s and 1942, establishing a past-tense narrative.
Verb tenses must be consistent with the timeline of the passage.
2
Evaluate the specific relationship between the events in the target sentence.
The action of planting trees occurred and was completed prior to the program ending in 1942, as signaled by the phrase 'By the time'.
An action completed prior to another past event requires the past perfect tense.
3
Formulate the correct verb form and verify parallelism.
The past perfect form 'had planted' fits grammatically and is parallel to the past action 'built' in the compound predicate.
This establishes a consistent and logical sequence of past events.

Key Concept

Verb Tense and Consistency
Estimated Time:1m 15s
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Topics

Verb Tense and Consistency

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