SAT Writing and Language Drill 2.6 Sentence Structure
Took? Had taken? Would have taken? Would take? Some make options, so little time. Watch this SAT Writing video to find out which one is best to use in this presidential passage.
| Inappropriate shifts in construction | Verb tense, mood, and voice |
| Product Type | SAT Writing |
| SAT | SAT Writing and Language |
| SAT Writing | Standard English Conventions |
| SAT Writing and Language | Standard English Conventions |
| Sentence Structure | Inappropriate shifts in construction |
| Standard English Conventions | Sentence Structure |
| Test Prep | SAT Writing |
Transcript
to get anywhere Washington took his oath in view of
thousands Okay so took what do you think about took
Seems like a weird phrase and it's a weird word
so washington doesn't take his oath until later in the
essay right We've got a timing thing took is in
the past tense so that not sound strange that there's
no time machine in seventeen ninety whatever this is yeah
So even though the story is in the past tense
taking the o still hasn't happened yet So the best
choice here is the conditional would or would take which
we can use here to refer to a future event
from the perspective of the past like it hasn't happened
yet There's not one in a million ons he never
takes the oath so he would take it if he
could take it right We'll using the past tense like
took in this paragraph jumps the action too far ahead
in the story Yes no time travel the construction would
have taken suggest something that could have happened in the
past but didn't and that doesn't work here because we
know that the oath taking did indeed happen All right
The next choice to be had taken all right and
that suggests that the oath taking happened before we began
telling the story which is impossible without you know presidential
teleportation So no time machines back then And sadly no
time machines today because we'd love to see how dinosaurs
were different issue Okay moving on that's it it z
there would take by