Grammar focus task Look at the following extracts from the passage. Complete the sentences below using
verbs in brackets in the correct form.
For more than 100 years, scientists have angued over exactly what a panda is. Now, finally,
with the help of DNA testing, the panda has been admitted to the ursidae (bear) family.
1 If scientists
(have) DNA testing 100 years ago, they
(be able to discover what a panda was.
However, the following year, zoologist Alphonse Milne Edwards dissected the first specimen and
concluded that it had more in common with the red panda, a member of the raccoon family.
2 If Alphonse Edwards
(not/dissect) a giant panda, scientists
..(not/think) the giant panda was a raccoon.
They had good reason to be confused. The giant panda shares many physical
characteristics with the red panda; both have evolved to feed on bamboo, grasping and
eating it in the same way, with similar teeth, skulls and forepaws.
ennas
3 If the giant panda
(not/resemble) a red panda, there
(not/be) so many arguments among scientists.
unt
In the mid-1980s there were several studies involving DNA comparisons between the
species. The first investigations linked the giant panda with bears, but in 1991, further tests
contradicted these findings and placed it in the raccoon family with the red panda.
amoros
4 If the 1991 DNA tests ..
argument
(not/contradict) the earlier findings, then the
(be) resolved earlier.​