EXPERTS Please HELP this WR Q

<p>Q) Quincy took Dan to Derek's home (A: for a visit), (B:never imagining) that five years (C:would pass) before (D:seeing) Derek again. (E:No Error.)</p>

<p>The answer is D. I kinda understand this b/c "seeing" implies that the subject of this gerund is "five years"; which doesn't make sense b/c "five years" cannot see Derek.</p>

<p>The problem I have is with redressing the error.
I don't think "he saw" will work in place of D, b/c of the overall tense:</p>

<p>Q took Dn to Dk's home for a visit, never imagining that five years would pass before he saw Dk again.</p>

<p>The tense doesn't seem to work b/c "taking Dn to Dk's home" happened before Quincy's seeing Dk again. But I am in a deadlock b/c you can't write "had taken" either.</p>

<p>The second option I came to is, "~ that five years would pass before his seeing Dk again," putting the possessive pronoun "his" (for Quincy) to represent the subject of the gerund "seeing."</p>

<p>hELP ME OUt :P</p>

<p>I think “seeing” should be replaced with “he would see” to keep the tense consistent.</p>

<p>The sentence would read:</p>

<p>Quincy took Dan to Derek’s home for a visit, never imagining that five years would pass before he would see Derek again.</p>

<p>You’re right about “seeing” being wrong because we wouldn’t know who is doing the seeing.</p>

<p>burgerking, that makes sense to me.</p>

<p>Wow, usually I’m good at these questions, but I have to admit I would have missed this one.</p>

<p>thanx !</p>

<p>@burgerking,</p>

<p>So “would see” would make sense b/c the part which talks about Quincy’s meeting Derek again after five years happens after Quincy’s taking Dan to Derek, but all to events happen in the past, right?</p>

<p>:)</p>

<p>I guess you could say the passing of the years and the seeing of Derek happen at the same time, so they have the same tense. Both the taking of Dan to Derek’s home and the not imagining happen before the passing and seeing, I guess. :D</p>

<p>thanx so much!! you cleared it up for me! :)</p>