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Question

Difficulty: MediumVerbs, Tenses, and Aspect

The spokesperson declared during the press conference that it is high time the municipal council ________ effective measures to resolve the acute water shortage. Which option best fills the gap to convey the correct grammatical sense?

  1. A
    enforce
  2. enforcedAnswer
  3. C
    should enforce
  4. D
    are enforcing

Answer

enforced
The expression 'it is high time' is followed by a subject and a verb in the past subjunctive (unreal past) tense to indicate that an action is overdue and ought to happen immediately. Therefore, the simple past form 'enforced' is grammatically mandatory.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the key grammatical expression in the sentence
The clause is introduced by the idiom 'it is high time'.
Phrases such as 'it is time' or 'it is high time' establish a specific syntactic rule governing the subsequent verb.
2
Determine the required tense and aspect for the verb that follows
The structure requires an 'unreal past' subjunctive form (simple past tense).
Even though the reference is to the present or immediate future, English grammar dictates using the simple past form to indicate an action that is overdue.
3
Select the option corresponding to the simple past tense of 'enforce'
The correct verb form is 'enforced'.
'enforced' correctly fulfills the unreal past requirement.

Key Concept

Unreal Past Tense after 'It is high time'
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Topics

Verbs, Tenses, and Aspect

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