The achievements of the greatest minds in science could never have been reached the patient work of hundreds of others．
A. were it not for
B. had it not been because
C. had it not been for
D. if it had not been
网友回答
A. were it not for
B. had it not been because
(答案→)C. had it not been for
D. if it had not been
解析：考查虚拟语气。If虚拟条件句，可省略if，而把were/should/had提到句首。根据could never have been可知，是对过去的虚拟，故条件句用过去完成时，把had提前，省略if。故选C。