Were you a bird, you … in the sky. A) would fly B) shall fly C) should fly D) shall have flown

Official answer: A) would fly. Explanation: The given sentence is an inverted second conditional (subjunctive mood) expressing an unreal/hypothetical situation in the present: "Were you a bird..." "If you were a bird..." In second conditional structures, the dependent hypothetical condition takes the past subjunctive form (*were*), and the main clause takes: would + base verb Therefore, the correct completion is would fly (Option A).

Verbal Aptitude

GATE CSE 2013 · Q59

MCQ1 markEasy

Time00:00

Were you a bird, you ____________ in the sky.

Select one answerSingle correct

Pick an option to check

Solution

Step-by-step verified solution

Official answer: A) would fly

Verbal Aptitude

The given sentence is an inverted second conditional (subjunctive mood) expressing an unreal/hypothetical situation in the present:

\text{"Were you a bird..."} \equiv \text{"If you were a bird..."}

In second conditional structures, the dependent hypothetical condition takes the past subjunctive form (*were*), and the main clause takes:

\textbf{would} + \text{base verb}

Therefore, the correct completion is would fly (Option A).

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This Verbal Aptitude previous year question is Q59 of the GATE CSE 2013 paper. Find more GATE CSE PYQs on Verbal Aptitude in General Aptitude, or browse all GATE CSE PYQs.

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Verbal Aptitude in GATE CSE

Verbal Aptitude has 41 GATE CSE PYQs across 13 papers from 2011 to 2026. 29 of them are 1-mark MCQs like this one, and GATE CSE 2013 has 5.

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Independent practice explanation verified by the GateAI team. GATE is conducted by the IITs; question text follows the official paper.