Exercise 7. Read the text and complete the sentences using the third conditional.

Some scientists, such as Stephen Hawking, believe it’s possible that there are billions and billions of universes. Each universe has a different possible consequence for every action. In the universe we live in, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019 and Argentina won the World Cup in 2022. But in other universes different things happened.

In one universe, the virus never spread outside China, and life continued as normal. In another, COVID-19 did spread, but scientists never developed vaccines for it, and the world stayed in lockdown much longer. Maybe somewhere, Messi retired before the 2022 World Cup, and Argentina didn’t win. In some universes, your parents didn’t meet, so you were never born. In another universe, a meteor didn’t strike the Earth, so the dinosaurs didn’t become extinct. In a different universe, your best friend won the lottery last summer and moved to a bigger house. Somewhere else, BTS didn’t go viral, and K-pop never became a global phenomenon. In some universe, Van Gogh was recognised as a great painter during his lifetime, and so didn’t die in poverty. In another universe, TikTok never became popular, so short videos didn’t take over social media. And perhaps in several universes, there were enough lifeboats on the Titanic and so everyone on board survived. It makes you think, doesn’t it?

If a meteor hadn’t struck the Earth, __________________________________________