Blockbuster Grammar Test Flawed

[lixluke]

6. Select the best word to complete the sentence:

They _______________ the incident to find the guilty.

investigated

investigating

investigate

investigates




You can only choose one of the answers, but 2 of them are proper answers.

 

[cosmictraveler]

investigated

 

[spidergoat]

or investigate

 

[Enmos]

Yep both are valid.
What is the point if this exercise ?

 

[leopold]

in my opinion the only way 'investigate' could be proper is if 'the' was dropped and an 's' added to 'incident'.

 

[draqon]

investigated

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

* * * * MODERATOR'S NOTE * * * *

Here is my response to inquiries regarding the formatting error in the bulletin board engine. I have deleted all other posts on this issue to keep the thread on topic.

Originally Posted by leopold99: edit: problem with formatting here. in the reply box there is a space between 'if' and 'the' but it doesn't appear in the post.

I got your report on that. Don't worry about it, it happens all the time. The word processing component of this bulletin board engine has a few quirky features. Apparently it thinks there really is a space in there and there's no way to argue over it. You can't put in more than one space because it always condenses them back to a single.

One space Two spaces Three spaces Four spaces Five spaces

They all display as one space.

When you're typing a reply, scroll down into the post chain and take a look at it. It's all in a different font with different formatting, and the spacing is not the same as the final display.

 

[Captain Kremmen]

Investigated is clearly OK.

Investigate, possibly.
You could use it in a storyboard.

The police are called to a man's house.
They investigate the incident to find the guilty.
They charge the man and his wife with the crime.

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

6. Select the best word to complete the sentence. . . .
You can only choose one of the answers, but 2 of them are proper answers.

I agree. Both the present indicative and past indicative are grammatically correct. In a news report you would probably see the past tense because a "news report" by definition generally (but not always) speaks of something that has already occurred. In a textbook on civics you might see the present tense in a description of how police work is customarily performed.