Industry analysts said that the recent rise in fuel prices may be an

Let’s take a look at each option:


A few things are off here. First, we already have “may be” in the first part of the sentence, so we don’t need another indication that the phrase is conditional. So the word “possibility” is redundant.

More importantly, that redundancy skews the meaning a bit. Was "gasoline and heating oil prices staying higher than usual" previously NOT a possibility? But because there's been a recent rise in fuel prices, "gasoline and heating oil prices staying higher than usual" is NOW a possibility?? That's not quite the author's intention. We aren't talking about a change in what's actually possible. Instead, we're talking about what the recent rise in fuel prices might signal.

Second, “usually” is not used correctly here. Notice that we have a comparison between the normal ("usual") prices and the current prices. As always, we want the comparison to remain parallel — "higher" is an adjective that describes “prices”, so “usual” (as an adjective) should also describe “prices.” The correct form here is “usual,” not “usually”.


In (B), we have THREE indicators of conditional: "may be," "possibility" and "could." So we have the redundancy issue that we saw in (A), only worse, and the corresponding meaning issue.

We also have an idiom problem. We normally don’t encourage worrying about idioms (to see why, check out this article), but here’s a quick explanation of the difference between “through” and “throughout”:

• When discussing time, “through” implies a moving towards the end or completion of something. For example, ”the quarantine will last through the month of June” — it will last until the end of June.
• “Throughout”, when discussing time, usually means during the entire situation. For example, “the birds sang throughout the day” — the birds were singing all day.
• In this sentence, what we care about is that the prices could stay high up until the end of the year, so “through” is better.

We can get rid of (B).


Again, “usually” is incorrect, as explained above, and that on its own is probably a good enough reason to get rid of (C). The redundant conditionals (“may be” and “possibly”) give us another vote against this choice.

There's also a subtle difference in meaning here: "staying" almost makes it sound like the prices are CURRENTLY "higher than usual through the end of the year." But that's not logical because we are talking about a conditional in the future -- we don't know whether the prices will be higher yet. That's no smoking gun, but it's certainly another vote against this one.

We can get rid of (C).


The use of "usually" here is ok because it modifies the verb "are," not “prices.”

But we still have redundant conditionals (“may be” and “could”). And, as in (B), “through” would be more appropriate than “throughout.”

Also, the use of "are" introduces a subtle ambiguity in meaning. "Higher than they usually are throughout the end of the year" seems to suggest that we are referring to some consistent end-of-year price level (one that is generally repeated year after year) and comparing current prices of gasoline and heating oil to the usual level (a bit like this example, where we are referring to past data and trends: "Hotel prices are lower than they usually are at this time of year.").

Again, that is a very subtle meaning issue. But we already have a couple votes against (D), so let's see if (E) is any better.


Here we have only “may be” as our conditional, so no redundancy issues. “Through” is the appropriate idiom, and “usual” correctly modifies “prices” and keeps the comparison parallel.

(E) is the best option!