Select the most appropriate option that can substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. If there is no need to substitute it, select 'No substitution'.
Abraham Lincoln has been the sixteenth president of the United States and save the Union at the American Civil war.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The correct answer is option 3 i.e. saved the Union during.
Error is concept: Tense consistency and preposition
What is wrong: “save” is wrong in form, and 'at' is an incorrect preposition.
Grammatical concept:
Simple past tense is used for actions that happened and finished in the past, including historical facts.
Even when the event has historical importance, if it happened and completed in the past, we normally use simple past, not present perfect or other tenses.
Also, “during” fits better to show that something happened during something else.
Incorrectness of the concept in context: 'Save' is the present plural form of the verb, hence is incorrect.
Correct phrase: Saved the Union during.
Final sentence: Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States and saved the Union during the American Civil War.
Hence, the chosen option is correct.