subjunctive or not?

Would help if you share your reasoning. Saying you think it is A dosen't help me or anyone else who reads this thread as we don't get the 'why'?

I hope you get the spirit of my request. Thanks

Since what was underlined in the original question but tried to see what made sense here, but IMO:

So this question has the structure: If you had done A, then you would have been .....

Like X & Y mentioned:

So it is an If...then scenario


C) is out because it says were to spend.... as he does complaining
does complaining here is awkward and it seems like he still complains...

D) half as much time attending his classes as complaining?? Does this sound right? this is not proper comparison. A correct one would be half as much time attending his classes as he did complaining....

E) is out because it says should is not subjunctive and would have been is subjunctive. so should does not go here.

I was left between A and B.

With POE, I took A.

I hope it helps.

uvs_mba

Your explanation for C,D and E looked good.

Can you please tell me why you choose A instead of B.

I think B is good because we are using past perfect and past test over here. Other wise there was no point in using past perfect tense.

I dont know whether I said made any sense. If I am worng then please tell me why I was wrong.

A...

'If x had, y would' construction so A and B are left.

B uses 'to <verb>' that is not right.

Ruby,

I picked A over B ,look at the following example:

I had spent enough time complaining

I had spent enough time to complain...

Since you are using a had which is a past perfect, the usage is of 'to+ verb' is not correct here.

I hope it helps.

Others, if you guys have other explainations, please feel free to jump in and maybe I can get a different point of view as well

A looks right to me.

A

had spent.......attending......as he did [spent] complaining....

Why not C for subjunctive mood....

BTW, do you check your PM list nowadays

because "had been" indicates the action was completed (his studies).

The only way to use the subjunctive in this case would be as a conditional. If Charles were to.... we would.....

(A) is most definately the answer

Same reason.

I do check the PMs.
MATT, atleast you can't say that.