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Help the fussy food critic finalize her review of a highly unusual restaurant. Select ALL the sentences that correctly use a fixed subjunctive expression.
The correct answers are: Heaven forbid they actually serve the soup at an appropriate temperature! The previous chef was a culinary anarchist, as it were. Perish the thought that I should ever return to this bistro!
"Heaven forbid" expresses a strong desire that something does not happen. Even though "Heaven" is singular, we use the base subjunctive forbid, not forbids.
"As it were" means "so to speak." It is a fixed unreal conditional phrase. It remains were even if the surrounding sentence is in the past tense—so "as it was" is incorrect here!
"Perish the thought" is a dramatic expression meaning "I hope that never happens." It uses the third-person imperative/subjunctive form of perish.