The health commissioner said - MGMAT Qtn

[rohit.manglik]

HI Ron,

I am confused between options B and E.

We have "had implemented", which is past perfect, so we need a past simple event. With this logic I chose B (tried).

Can you please explain what I am missing.

[sagarr705]

Of course you are wrong. As Ron is fond of saying, don't question official answers; they are by definition correct. In this case, you appear to be trying to impose an alternate interpretation on the sentence that would make the answer choice incorrect. Keep in mind that if there are two possible interpretations of the sentence and one is grammatically correct while the other is not, you should ignore the incorrect interpretation and accept the correct interpretation..

One question - Why have you used used "would" in the statement above? Since you have used the present tense in the former part of the sentence, should not you be using "will" in the latter part? Is using would here something to do with the subjunctive function of would?

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Yes. We can use 'would' to signify an alternate reality. I assume you've checked out chapter 12 of the SC strategy guide. Also, don't expect us instructors to follow all the GMAT rules in all of our language. It's best to think of GMAT English as a slightly more precise and more formal way of using language that no-one actually uses in everyday communication.