Tense: please elaborate the use of would could

[manaschhabra]

In 1860, the Philological Society launched its effort to create a dictionary more comprehensive than the world had ever seen; although the project would take more than 60 years to complete, the Oxford English Dictionary had been born.

1- would take more than 60 years to complete, the Oxford English Dictionary had been

2- took more than 60 years to complete, the Oxford English Dictionary was

3- would take more than 60 years to complete, the Oxford English Dictionary was being

4- would take more than 60 years to complete, the Oxford English Dictionary was

5- took more than 60 years to complete, the Oxford English Dictionary was about to be

[terence.battle1]

I believe correct answer here is B. Would take is not the correct wording to follow project. That's future tense where we want past tense (took). Again don't need had been but rather was. What's being born? Oxford Dictionary.

[rikky.bora]

@manaschhabra

This question has been explained to death on MGMAT.

A quick way to find explanations on MGMAT for particular problems and avoiding reposting similar question/queries is doing a Google search with the following text

mgmat + <your problem>

e.g. - mgmat + In 1860, the Philological Society launched its effort

You would get all the threads on MGMAT where this question has been explained by the MGMAT experts.

And if you are waiting for an Expert reply here, you might have to wait a while.

[RonPurewal]

thanks, rikky.

an even more effective way to do this:
type
site:manhattangmat.com
before your search term. this search will only find results on the server "manhattangmat.com".

for this particular problem, if you type
site:manhattangmat.com "the Philological Society launched"
then you will find at least 3 already existing threads concerning this problem.