<p>Consider this question:</p>
<p>The bus would not have had to take(A) the long detour instead of (B) the main high way if the bridge did not become (C) treacherous in the aftermath of(D) an ice storm.</p>
<p>The answer is C. I don't quite understand why. Is it supposed to be "had not become"? Because the sentence is talking about something that happened before a past action?</p>
<p>The sentence starts with the past perfect. To maintain logical coherence, it must continue with the past perfect. Putting C in the past tense as it is sounds like it became treacherous one time.</p>
<p>correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the main verb phrase here "have had"? so wouldn't that put the sentence into present perfect? </p>
<p>And is C wrong also because the verb in the phrase is "become"? So for example, if the verb were, say, "collapse," then would the sentence be correct (if the bridge did not collapse)?</p>
<p>Isn't it C because of it's subjunctive? The bridge did become treacherous, so the bridge not becoming treacherous did not actually happen. Therefore you should use "had not"?
correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>^ You're right; thanks for the correction - have had is present perfect.</p>
<p>Yeah I think Liebenasuka is right; the sentence is in subjunctive form, so it should be "had not"</p>
<p>OK question time..</p>
<p>is this a standard question structure? I mean.. is the question just about which of the underlined parts are incorrect?</p>
<p>Yes, but there is only one error at most. And there is always an E choice that is "no error."</p>
<p>Thanks, I actually just found my answer for myself on the SAT website.. damn, some of these are tricky!</p>