Choosing a pet: condicional invertida com should (C2)

Nobody chooses a pet. People believe they do; they read about temperament and shedding and life expectancy, they consider the size of the flat and the hours they work, and then they go to the place where the animals are, and something happens that has nothing to do with any of it. ___ the decision be made on the evidence alone, most households would contain a different animal entirely, and a great many would contain no animal, since the honest calculation rarely favours acquiring a dependent that cannot be reasoned with and will predecease you. The criteria are not being applied. They are being assembled afterwards, to dignify a recognition that took less than a second. This is not a failure of rationality; it is a different faculty doing what it was built to do. We are pattern-reading animals with an oversensitive apparatus for detecting the presence of another mind, and that apparatus fires at a shape in a cage and produces a conviction the intellect then hurries to justify. The rest of the relationship follows from that first unearned certainty: fourteen years of feeding and vet bills, and grief that surprises everyone, including the mourner.

Fonte: English for ALL (texto original).

Assinale a alternativa que completa corretamente a lacuna do texto.

A) Were
B) Had
C) Should
D) Did
E) Would

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Resposta correta: C

A presença do infinitivo nu be identifica a inversão com should, equivalente a If the decision should be made, usada para hipóteses formais e pouco prováveis. Were exigiria a forma finita, como em Were the decision made, e não aceita be depois do sujeito. Had pediria particípio, como em Had the decision been made, também ausente. Did produziria uma pergunta e não uma condicional, e Would não encabeça oração condicional invertida em inglês padrão, além de deixar a estrutura sem verbo principal conjugado.

Choosing a pet: condicional invertida com should (C2)

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