Either Chris or the new employee ________ the mail before Dolores or Charles ________.
opens . . . does
To determine the correct verb to fill in the blank, we need to identify the subject and the structure of the sentence.
In the given sentence, "Either Chris or the new employee" is the subject. The verb that follows needs to agree with this subject.
Let's break down the options in the first blank:
1. "Either Chris or the new employee collects the mail before Dolores or Charles" - In this case, "collects" is the correct verb because it agrees with the subject "either Chris or the new employee."
Now, let's move to the second blank:
2. "Either Chris or the new employee collected the mail before Dolores or Charles" - In this case, "collected" is the correct verb because it agrees with the subject "either Chris or the new employee."
Based on the options provided, we can either use "collects" or "collected" depending on the tense we want to use in the sentence.