During the first one hundred fifty years of the existence of this

During the first one hundred fifty years of the existence of this republic, no one expected the press was fair; newspapers were mostly shrill, scurrilous, and partisan.

A) was

B) to be

C) of being

D) should be

E) had to be

I think you need to put yourself in the same timeline. "expected" is past tense, so you would use "was" or "had to be" if you're talking in the present about the past. Not talking about the past while in the same past timeline. (A), (E) are out.

"being" and "should" are almost always wrong on GMAT so eliminate (C), (D)

(B) is the best, expect ... to be
Ans: (B)

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
• The idiomatic form of the expression is either
expected that X would be Y
or
expect X to be Y

Thus B, which follows the latter form, is the best answer.

• Each of the other options produces an unidiomatic statement.

COMMENTS
somya29verma , belated welcome to GMAT Club!
(If I've welcomed you before, ignore my dementia.)

The OE?

Hmm. What happens if the idiom is unfamiliar?

Well, then we rely on any and all of the analyses posted.

somya29verma wisely places herself in the time frame the sentence requires.
"Vitriolic" is a great word!

Prateekj05 does a masterful job of explaining the issues.

lary301254M7 also wisely goes back in time, and gives excellent reasons to
eliminate two choices.

The use of "being" and "should" on the GMAT is a controversial subject
that I will leave alone for now.

I can't improve these answers. Taken together, they are superb.

Taken separately, I give Prateekj05 "best answer," AND
I really like the sensibility and analysis offered by the authors of all three posts.

Nice work, all!
I will let "smiley face" mean "I like this answer."
Smiley faces to somya29verma and lary301254M7

Best answer gets straight kudos . . . to Prateekj05 (really excellent work)

I approached this question using the subjunctive vs infinitive classification.

If I were to write the statement in subjunctive form, I would write:
"No one expected that the press was fair"

But, the statement in infinitive form (as it is as per the non-underlined section) would be:
"No one expected press to be fair"

Hey chaoticneuron

Please allow me to interject.

The verb is/am/was/etc. has two Subjunctive Forms: the present subjunctive "be" used with directive verbs such as recommend, demand, advice, suggest, etc., and the past subjunctive "were" used in unreal conditionals such as "If I were the president, I would eradicate corruption" and a few other constructs.

So, when I see your sentence "No one expected that the press was fair", I have the following two questions:

a. If this sentence is indeed in the subjunctive, why don't we see a "be" or a "were" in it?
b. What triggered you to think this was a subjunctive sentence in the first place?

The subjunctive mood is used to convey unreal/hypothetical ideas and not facts. This sentence, on the other hand, expresses a fact. It tells us something that no one did in the past. No one expected the press to be fair. And it is idiomatic to use a to-verb after the verb 'expect'. For example, I expect you to visit me on Friday.


So, to conclude, no, using 'was' does not make this sentence a subjunctive sentence, and there is no requirement for the subjunctive in this sentence in the first place.


I hope this helps improve your understading.


Happy Learning!

Abhishek