Read the passage and determine the correct form of the verb 'share' to complete the sentence. To ensure the passage conforms to the conventions of Standard English, what form of the verb 'share' should be written in the blank?
Answer:In 1944, German chemist Otto Hahn was solely awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of nuclear fission. Many modern historians of science argue that if the Swedish Academy had fully recognized Austrian physicist Lise Meitner’s critical theoretical contributions to the research, she 【would have shared】 the prestigious prize alongside him.
Answer
would have shared
The correct verb form 'would have shared' is required to complete the conditional construction. The passage sets up a past counterfactual scenario using the past perfect tense in the conditional clause ('if the Swedish Academy had fully recognized...'). To maintain grammatical mood and tense consistency, the main clause must use the conditional perfect form ('would have shared') to indicate an action that would have occurred in the past if the condition had been met.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Past counterfactual conditional structures (third conditional) require the past perfect tense in the conditional clause and the conditional perfect tense in the main clause.