II okres warunkowy

W teście mam zdanie:
5. He would have a much better chance of passing the exam if he(....)to lessons.
a) have come
b) would come
c) comes
d) came

Dlaczego poprawna jest odpowiedź A, a nie D? Proszę mi wytłumaczyć kiedy w okresach warunkowych można użyć present perfect.

Oops, my mistake. Chyba mi się nie zaznaczyła odpowiedź D i pokazało jako błąd.

Ale nadal ciekawi mnie czy i kiedy mogę użyć present perfect?

Alright, martunia, let's make it clear - it really is possible to use the present perfect tense in the conditional clause when you are talking about a possible situation in the present; you normally use a modal in the main clause in that case, e.g.
Unless you've tried it, you can't imagine how pleasant it is.
If you have had problems finding an agent, you might consider him as the best choice.

OK, thank you.
I've got another question.

The police ____ very brutal nowadays.
a) is
b) are
c) has been
d) is supposed to be

I checked A and the correct answer is B. I thought both possibilities are correct, just like these sentences:
- The family IS sitting at the table
- The family ARE sitting at the table

'the police' ALWAYS takes the plural verb unlike 'family', 'team', 'company' etc.

Not true.

"Police" can mean "police force":
More police is not the answer.
The police is under the state jurisdiction.
and it takes A singular noun.

When "police" means "policemen," it takes A plural noun.
The police have arrived at the crime scene (=individual policemen have arrived at the scene.)

It's really good to know that.

So should both answers be correct?

You see, the most important thing is the context - in the sentence you provided I can only assume that it deals with people related to the police force, so the correct answer is 'are'. Amazingly enough, it was the first time I had got to know that 'police' can be used with the singular verb. What's more, I have never used the form 'is' following the word 'police' in my whole life!

Unfortunetly, though, you cannot always use Present perfect and present simple interchangeably in conditional tenses. I think that it is worth mentioning as you are taking FCE fairly soon.

If two things happen together use present simple instead of present perfect . Two exemples from book :

When I have phoned Kate, we can have dinner (=first I'll phone Kate and then we can have dinner)

When I phone Kate this evening, I'll invite her to the party. (not When I phoned. In this exemple two things happen together)

I hope that helps.

damn article ;-)