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Difficulty: MediumVerb Tense and Consistency

The following passage is an excerpt from a biography of geologist Marie Tharp.

In the mid-twentieth century, geologist Marie Tharp painstakingly plotted thousands of sonar measurements to create the first comprehensive map of the Atlantic Ocean floor. At the time, most scientists believed the seabed was a flat, featureless plain. Tharp’s work, however, revealed a massive underwater rift valley splitting the ocean floor. Although her colleague, Bruce Heezen, initially dismissed her findings as 'girl talk,' he, along with several other skeptical members of the department, later realizes she was correct. The map they published in 1977 ultimately changed the way scientists understood plate tectonics.

Which of the following options represents the correct form of the underlined verb to maintain consistent verb tense in the passage?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. realizedAnswer
  3. C
    realize
  4. D
    realizing

Answer

The correct answer is 'realized' because it is the past tense form of the verb, matching the past tense verbs ('plotted,' 'believed,' 'dismissed') that establish the time frame of the passage.
The correct answer is 'realized' because the passage describes historical events in the past tense (such as Marie Tharp plotting measurements and scientists believing the seabed was flat). To maintain verb tense consistency, the verb in the main clause must also be in the past tense ('realized').

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Determine the time frame of the passage by identifying the tense of surrounding verbs.
Verbs like 'plotted,' 'believed,' 'revealed,' 'dismissed,' and 'published' establish that the passage is written in the past tense.
Verb tenses must remain consistent throughout a passage unless there is a clear, logical reason for a temporal shift.
2
Analyze the underlined verb 'realizes' in context.
The verb 'realizes' is in the present tense, which creates an inconsistent and illogical tense shift from past to present.
The realization occurred in the past, matching the timeline of the other actions in the narrative.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the grammatically correct past tense verb that agrees with the subject.
The singular subject 'he' (Bruce Heezen) requires the singular past tense verb 'realized.'
The option 'realized' correctly maintains tense consistency and grammatical agreement, ignoring the distracting plural noun 'members' in the intervening prepositional phrase.

Key Concept

Verb Tense and Consistency
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Topics

Verb Tense and Consistency

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