According to Alistair Maclean’s novel, the invincible mountainous terr

Straight C. The usage of 'would' is appropriate

(A) if they did not exploit its strategic location, their survival against the indomitable naval might of the British was always in peril —“was” is incorrect verb tense. Eliminate.

(B) if they did not exploit its strategic location, their survival against the indomitable naval might of the British could be liable to be in peril — “could” is incorrect usage here. Eliminate.

(C) If they did not exploit its strategic location, their survival against the indomitable naval might of the British would be always in peril — I’d have preferred would “always be” in peril. But the can tense is fixed here. Keep.

(D) if the were not to exploit its strategic location, their survival against the indomitable naval might of the British was always in peril — incorrect verb tense. “was”.

(E) their survival against the indomitable naval might of the British was always in peril, should they fail to exploit its strategic location — “was” is the incorrect verb tense here. It reduces the conditionality of the outcome ie survival against naval night of the British.

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daagh

will you pls suggest , how "didn't" is compatible in first part of option C.
We are talking about an assumption out here, so shouldn't it be in subjunctive form ?
Something like "were" in place of "didnt". THough option D fixes the same but in option D 2nd half is wrong.

So my point is doesn't option C need a correction ?

egmat Can you please help me understand how to choose between A and C

If simple past, then simple past OR would verb - This is the if..then rule we follow for simple past and to choose between simple past and would we would need to understand the context.

As I understand, "would" will be used in case of any uncertainty and simple past should be used for a habit/certain condition.

Here, the use of "realised" is throwing me off - doesn't it mean a belief/certainty? If so, it should use simple past.

Hello Swati1905,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, what this sentence conveys is that the Germans realized something about a conditional situation; since conditional situations imply hypothetical action, the use of "would" is correct here.

Further, "would" is also used to refer to a past action from a point in time further in the past; in this case, the Germans in the past are considering a possible action in their future, so "would" is correct.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team