<p>This was in the 10th section of a practice test.</p>
<p>The construction of the new pool "was to have been completed last month, but" the long spell of rainy weather has postponed the opening until october.</p>
<p>A. correct as written
B. will have been completed last month, but
C. was to be completed last month, so
D. has been completed last month, but
E. were to be completed last month, nevertheless</p>
<p>The answer says it is correct as written, but I think it is D. Can anyone tell me what's the write answer and the grammer rules relating to it?</p>
<p>Well, it can’t be D because it changes the meaning and it doesn’t make sense. The original sentence is saying that the construction would have been completed, but it was postponed due to weather. D says that the construction has been completed, but it was postponed (contradictory).
B doesn’t work because of tense. E doesn’t work because construction isn’t plural and “nevertheless” makes its own independent clause. Not sure about A, but C has a bad conjunction.
In my opinion, it sounds better if they put the words “would have been completed” or something, but that’s probably a parallelism issue.</p>
<p>Im not sure about A either…“was to have been” is kind of confusing…D cannot be because “has been” means that it happened in the past and is continuing right now.</p>
<p>A is correct. The sentence is communicating that the pool should have been completed last month, but it wasn’t because of all the rain. The only correct form is as it’s written. It doesn’t sound great, and it’s a bit wordy, but it’s the only one that all parts of the choice work.</p>