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As the city council wants to cut down the city’s average yearly expenditure on its power supply to buildings housing public sector offices, the council members opine that the city council will easily slash its current expenditure to half if they would replace the air-conditioning units that had been currently in use with more environment-friendly ones.  
  • a)
    they would replace the air-conditioning units that had been  
  • b)
    it replaces the air-conditioning units  
  • c)
    it would replace the air-conditioning units  
  • d)
    they replaced the air-conditioning units that are
  • e)
    it were to replace the air-conditioning units that were
Correct answer is option 'B'. Can you explain this answer?
Verified Answer
As the city council wants to cut down the city’s average yearly ...
As the city council wants to cut down the city’s average yearly expenditure on its power supply to buildings housing public sector offices, the council members opine that the city council will easily slash its current expenditure to half if they would replace the air-conditioning units that had been currently in use with more environment-friendly ones.  
Meaning Analysis
  • As the city council wants to cut down the city’s average yearly expenditure on its power supply to buildings
    • housing public sector offices,
  • the council members opine
    • that the city council will easily slash its current expenditure to half
      • if they would replace the air-conditioning units
        • that had been currently in use with more environment-friendly ones.
The sentence says that the city council wants to reduce the city’s average yearly expense on power supply to those buildings that have public sector offices. In order to do so, the council members think that if the council replaces the air-conditioning units that currently run in these offices with more environment-friendly ones, it will easily reduce the current expenditure to half.
Error Analysis
1)    The plural pronoun “they” does not agree in number with its singular noun antecedent “council”.
2)    This sentence uses the “if… then…” construction. The “then” clause – “the city council will easily slash…” – in the non-underlined portion of the sentence is written in the simple future tense. This requires the “if” clause to be written in the simple present tense. Hence the use of “would” is incorrect.
3)    Also use of past perfect tense verb “had been” is incorrect because the air-conditioning units are currently in use.
 
Answer Choices
A
they would replace the air-conditioning units that had been  
Incorrect: This choice has the errors found in the error analysis.  
B
it replaces the air-conditioning units  
Correct:
This choice corrects all the errors of Choice A. The singular pronoun “it” correctly refers to “the council”, and use of the simple present tense verb “replaces” in the “if” clause is correct. This choice also removes the past perfect verb tense error.        
C
it would replace the air-conditioning units  
Incorrect:
This choice repeats the “would” verb tense error of Choice A.   
D
they replaced the air-conditioning units that are
Incorrect:
1)    This choice repeats the pronoun error of Choice A.  
2)    Use of the simple past tense verb “replaced” in the “if” clause is incorrect as the “then” clause is written in the simple future tense.    
E
it were to replace the air-conditioning units that were
Incorrect:
1)    This choice retains the verb tense error of Choice D. Use of the conditional verb “were to” is incorrect because the “then” clause is written in the simple future tense. 
2)    Use of the simple past tense verb “were” is incorrect because the air-conditioning units are currently in use.
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Most Upvoted Answer
As the city council wants to cut down the city’s average yearly ...
Explanation:

The correct answer is option B: "it replaces the air-conditioning units."

The main reason this option is correct is because it uses the correct verb tense and subject-verb agreement.

Subject-Verb Agreement:
In this sentence, the subject is "the city council," which is a singular noun. Therefore, the verb that follows should also be singular. The correct verb form is "replaces," which agrees with the singular subject "the city council."

Verb Tense:
The sentence is discussing a hypothetical situation and the potential outcome of replacing the air-conditioning units. Since it is a hypothetical situation, the verb tense should be in the present simple tense. Option B correctly uses the present simple tense verb "replaces."

Other Options:
a) "they would replace the air-conditioning units that had been" - This option uses the conditional tense "would replace," which implies that the action is unlikely to happen. Additionally, the phrase "that had been" is unnecessary and does not fit the context of the sentence.

c) "it would replace the air-conditioning units" - This option also uses the conditional tense "would replace," which implies that the action is unlikely to happen. The use of "it" as the subject is incorrect because the subject should be "the city council."

d) "they replaced the air-conditioning units that are" - This option uses the past tense "replaced," which is incorrect because the sentence is discussing a hypothetical situation. Additionally, the phrase "that are" is incorrect and does not fit the context of the sentence.

e) "it were to replace the air-conditioning units that were" - This option uses the subjunctive form "were to replace," which is not necessary in this context. The use of "it" as the subject is also incorrect because the subject should be "the city council."
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As the city council wants to cut down the city’s average yearly expenditure on its power supply to buildings housing public sector offices, the council members opine that the city council will easily slash its current expenditure to half if they would replace the air-conditioning units that had been currently in use with more environment-friendly ones.a)they would replace the air-conditioning units that had beenb)it replaces the air-conditioning unitsc)it would replace the air-conditioning unitsd)they replaced the air-conditioning units that aree)it were to replace the air-conditioning units that wereCorrect answer is option 'B'. Can you explain this answer?
Question Description
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