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Question

Difficulty: HardVerbs, Tenses, and Aspect

Complete the sentence below by supplying the correct tense form of the verb provided in brackets.

Answer:It is high time the legislative council 【amended】 (amend) the obsolete municipal laws governing public sanitation.

Answer

amended
When the idiomatic structure 'It is high time' is followed directly by a subject noun phrase ('the legislative council'), standard formal English requires the verb to be in the simple past tense (unreal past). Therefore, the correct form of 'amend' is 'amended'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the introductory syntactic construction of the sentence.
The sentence begins with the fixed expression 'It is high time' followed by a explicit subject ('the legislative council').
In standard English grammar, the construction 'It is time / It is high time / It is about time' followed by a subject noun phrase requires an unreal past (subjunctive equivalent) verb form to convey present or future urgency for an action that is overdue.
2
Infect/conjugate the base verb 'amend' to match the unreal past requirement.
The base verb 'amend' is inflected into its simple past tense form, 'amended'.
Even though the reference is to a present or immediate future necessity, the past tense form 'amended' must be used after 'It is high time + subject'.

Key Concept

Unreal Past Tense after 'It is high time'
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Verbs, Tenses, and Aspect

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