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santorasantu
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If they would have paid attention, they would not have had to b Updated on: 31 Oct 2019, 23:00
Originally posted by santorasantu on 07 Aug 2019, 14:09.
Last edited by Sajjad1994 on 31 Oct 2019, 23:00, edited 2 times in total.
Updated - Complete topic (04).
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C
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Difficulty:

25% (medium)

Question Stats:

63% (00:31) correct 37% (00:37) wrong based on 103 sessions

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If they would have paid attention, they would not have had to be told again.

(A) would have paid

(B) would pay

(C) had paid

(D) paid

(E) were to pay

Source: Master GMAT
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C
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CrackverbalGMAT
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If they would have paid attention, they would not have had to b 09 Aug 2019, 20:31
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Quote:
If they would have paid attention, they would not have had to be told again.
(A) would have paid
(B) would pay
(C) had paid
(D) paid
(E) were to pay
Show more

The correct answer here is C. The main thing you have to look out for is that D can be a bit of a trap answer. The format is that "If <past tense thing happened>, then <present perfect> thing would not be the case. This immediately helps get rid of A and B.

The "were" in E indicates a state of being, but we want to talk about an action that didn't end up happening.

D is very tempting, but when we talk about a past tense action that didn't transpire, the ideal construction is the had+past participle one.

This leaves us with C.

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If they would have paid attention, they would not have had to b 09 Aug 2019, 20:52
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Straight forward question. If + had + past participle , then would +have + past participle.

So answer C is correct answer.

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If they would have paid attention, they would not have had to b 31 Oct 2019, 23:00
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Official Explanation

This sentence provides another example of the proper sequence of tenses in a slightly different format. If the two events had actually occurred (neither event did occur), the “paying attention” would have occurred prior to the “having to be told again.” Therefore, the earlier event must be in the past perfect tense (had paid). The if clause is known as a condition contrary to fact (in fact, they did not pay attention).

The correct answer is (C).
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