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Question

Difficulty: HardVerbs, Tenses, and Aspect

Complete the sentence below by providing the grammatically correct verb form for the blank space.

Answer:The Senate President insisted that the minister 【appear】 before the special committee to clarify the discrepancies in the fiscal budget.

Answer

appear
The main verb 'insisted' introduces a mandative subjunctive clause ('that the minister...'). In English grammar, verbs of demand, request, or insistence take the base (uninflected) form of the verb in the subordinate clause, regardless of the main clause tense or subject number. Therefore, the bare infinitive 'appear' is the only grammatically correct choice.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the main governing verb and clause structure in the sentence.
The main verb 'insisted' governs a subordinate noun clause introduced by 'that' ('that the minister...').
Verbs expressing demand, insistence, recommendation, or request trigger the mandative subjunctive mood in subordinate clauses.
2
Determine the required verb form for mandative subjunctive constructions.
The mandative subjunctive requires the base (uninflected bare infinitive) form of the verb.
In subjunctive clauses following verbs of insistence, temporal inflections and third-person subject agreement markers are dropped, regardless of the main verb's past tense.
3
Select the base form of the verb to fill the blank.
The correct verb form is 'appear'.
'Appear' is the base form of the verb, satisfying the syntactic demands of the mandative subjunctive structure.

Key Concept

Mandative Subjunctive Mood with Verbs of Demand/Insistence
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Topics

Verbs, Tenses, and Aspect

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