From the B2 Russian exam - why сдавать and not сдать домашнее задание?

Question

This is a question from the B2 Russian exam.Я очень рад: домашнее задание сегодня можно неа)сдаватьб)сдатьThe correct answer is listed as (a). Why? It's a one-time action, and doesn't have any continuous quality. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Hello, I believe it is because of the negation. It's like when telling someone not to do something не говори(те) не ходи(те) you must use несовершенная форма (imperfective). The same is in your example 'не' followed by сдавать imperfective form.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Your assumption would have been correct , but in this case сдать и сдавать actually mean different things/ you can treat them as unrelated verbs: сдать means to pass ( a test, an exam) , сдавать is to submit, to offer for grading, assessment. That’s why the correct choice is сдавать.