Which modal verb phrase correctly completes the sentence below to express a past unfulfilled obligation?
'The chief curator insisted that the rare sixteenth-century manuscript _______ with cotton gloves, but the assistant handled it with bare hands.'
- ought to have been handledCevap
- Bmust to have been handled
- Cmight can have been handled
- Doughted to have been handled
Cevap
The correct phrase is 'ought to have been handled', which uses the modal construction for expressing an unfulfilled past obligation in the passive voice.
The phrase 'ought to have been handled' correctly uses the semi-modal verb 'ought to' followed by the perfect passive auxiliary 'have been' and the past participle 'handled'. This structure is the grammatically standard way in English to indicate that a past obligation was expected or required but was ultimately not fulfilled.
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Expressing Past Unfulfilled Obligation with Modal Auxiliaries