there + be structure

[Igor]

Hi everybody! This is the sentence from TOEFL practice:

The glaciers that reached the Pacific Coast were valley glaciers, and between those tongues of ice .......... that allowed the original
forests to survive.

(a) that many sanctuaries were

(b) were many sanctuaries

(c) were there many sanctuaries

(d) there the many sanctuaries

In a grammar book you can read that the structure THERE + BE introduces the idea that something exist in a particular place. In the sentence above " between those tongues of ice " is " a particular place" and " many sanctuaries " is " something ". Therefore, it looks like the right answer could be " There were many sanctuaries".

Thanks.

[Erin]

Actually, you are absolutely right, that we could say "there were many sanctuaries," but we don't have that choice.

The best answer is B). This one is tricky because we have inversion of the subject and verb here because of the adverbial phrase "between those tongues of ice."

Check out my page on inversion for more info on this very tricky grammar point!!

Hope that helps!!

Please post here if you have any more questions!!

Erin

Erin Billy
TestMagic.com
San Francisco, CA USA