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Question

Difficulty: MediumVerbs, Tenses, and Aspect

During the parliamentary debate on environmental policy, the lead analyst remarked that it was high time the regulatory agency ________ the emission guidelines for industrial plants. Which of the following options correctly completes the sentence?

  1. revisedAnswer
  2. B
    revises
  3. C
    has revised
  4. D
    would revise

Answer

revised
The expression 'it is high time' (and its past reporting variant 'it was high time') followed by a subject requires a simple past tense verb form ('revised') to signal an action that is urgent or overdue.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the controlling grammatical expression in the sentence.
The clause begins with the fixed expression 'it was high time' followed by the noun subject 'the regulatory agency'.
Special subjunctive-like structures dictate specific verb tense rules.
2
Apply the unreal past tense rule for 'it is/was high time'.
Determine that when 'it is high time' is followed by a subject, the verb must be in the simple past tense form to indicate an action that should have happened already.
English grammar requires the past form to reflect hypothetical urgency or overdue action.
3
Select the option containing the simple past tense verb.
The form 'revised' correctly satisfies the structural requirement.
'revised' is the simple past tense verb form.

Key Concept

Unreal Past Tense following 'It is / was high time'
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Topics

Verbs, Tenses, and Aspect

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