The book was so interesting that he had read it for three hours __________ he realized it.
A. before B. until
Which one would you choose?
Our teacher said the answer was "before". I can't understand why "until" is wrong here.
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Sign up to join this communityThe book was so interesting that he had read it for three hours __________ he realized it.
A. before B. until
Which one would you choose?
Our teacher said the answer was "before". I can't understand why "until" is wrong here.
The book was so interesting that he had read it for three hours __________ he realized it.
A. before B. until
"Before" is the correct answer. I think the meaning is more clear after replacing "it" with what the reader actually realized. "He had read it for three hours before he realized how much time had passed." The sentence means that three hours passed between the time he started reading and the time at which he noticed how long he had been reading. We do not know whether he then continued to read the book. If we said "until he realized it", there is an implication that he stopped reading at that point.