Once the team of analysis identify the problem, we ____ in a better position to comment on the issue.
Which of the following choices CANNOT fill the given blank?
A. will be B. were to be C. are going to be D. might be
GATE 2019 · General Aptitude · Tenses · medium
Answer: B. were to be
Analyse the sentence context: The sentence says 'Once the team ... identify the problem', using 'once' to introduce a temporal clause that is expected to become true. The main clause must express a future result, not a conditional hypothesis.
Test option B: were to be: 'Were to be' is the subjunctive form used in conditional sentences (e.g., 'If we were to be selected...'). Using it after 'once' creates a grammatical mismatch — 'once' implies a definite future event, while 'were to be' implies a hypothetical one.
Confirm A, C, D are valid: A ('will be') = definite future — valid. C ('are going to be') = planned future — valid. D ('might be') = possible future — valid. All three fit the future result clause grammatically.