爱思英语编者按：改错短文中，上下文往往会有信息词提示动词的时态是否有误。

技巧3 结合上下文判断动词的时态是否有误

改错短文中，上下文往往会有信息词提示动词的时态是否有误。另外，注意以下句型跟某种时态有特定的对应关系：

1．在宾语从句中，若主句为现在时、将来时、现在完成时，宾语从句的谓语动词时态视情况而定；主句为过去时态，宾语从句一般用过去时态。如果宾语从句说明的是客观真理，用一般现在时。

2．在时间和条件状语从句中，常用现在时表示将来。

3．在if引导的非真实条件句中，或在由otherwise，without，or，but for，but that，given，provided，were it not for等引导的含蓄条件句中，主句谓语动词需使用虚拟语气，即表过去时用would/should/could/might+have done，表现在和将来时用would/should/could/might+do。

4．表示建议、命令、要求、主张、愿望等主观倾向性概念的动词、名词（如advise，suggest, suggestion, order, recommend, propose, proposal, ask, command, insist, demand, desire, beg, require, propose, urge, decide，determine，urge等），其后的名词性从句需用虚拟语气，形式是“should+动词原形”，should可以省略。

5．在“It is (about/high) time that...”句型中，that从句中的谓语动词带用一般过去时，that可以省略。

6．在This/That/It is the second time that..句型中that从句用现在完成时，若is改为was，则用过去完成时。

7．在no sooner...than.和hardly...when...句型中，前面常用过去完成时，than/when后的句子用一般过去时。

8.在 was/were about to do...when...或was/were doing...when...或was/were on the point of doing...when...句型中，when分句的谓语动词用一般过去时。

真题例证1

century B.C. Up to the beginning of the 19th century, many writers favoured a certain land of "free" translation: the spirit, not the letter the sense not the words; the message rather than the form; the matter not the manner. This is the often revolutionary slogan of writers who wanted the truth to be read and understood. Then at the turn of the 19th century, when the study of cultural anthropology suggested that(4)____

分析：考点所在句子中的定语从句用的是一般过去时，而主句谓语动词用的是一般现在时，不符合一个句子中时态应保持一致的语法规则。再者，从上下文来看，这个句子讲述的是19世纪之前作家们的情况，上下句中使用的都是过去时，所以此处应把谓语动词is改为它的过去式was。

真题例证2

is something that we almost always know. We begin the "natural" leaming of pronunciation long before we start leaming to read or write, and in our early years we went on unconsciously imitating and practicing the pronunciation of those around us for many more hours every day than we ever have to spend leaming even our difficult English spelling...(6)____

分析：该句的上下文使用的都是一般现在时，所以尽管此处意思上是说过去小时候(in our early years)的事，但是以一种客观的语气说一个客观的现象和事实，须用一般现在时，故要把went改为go。

真题例证3

The English language will be just as rich in terms for different kinds of snow if the environments in which English was habitually used made such distinctions important(8)____

分析：本句是说如果英语惯常的使用环境也把区分雪的种类变得很重要的话，英语中有关“雪”的词语也会变得同样丰富。这是一个非真实条件句，应将will改为would。

真题例证4

human infants, a capacity to learn language. For this reason, biologists now suggest that language be "species specific" to the human race that is to say, they consider the human infant to be genetically programmed in (8)____

分析：这里的suggest不应指“建议”，而是指“提出（看法等）”，与下文that is to say之后的consider同义，因此不能使用虚拟语气，故需把be改成一般现在时的is。