From Twitter:
A castaway* on a deserted island says:
“If I only had a lighter and a flare gun!”**
The suggested idea is (Choose):
a. He had only those things, but lost them.
b. He needs things–most of all those things, so then he could help himself with them.
c. He wishes he had just a lighter and flare gun.
*A castaway
is a person who has been cast (or “thrown”, but not by someone else) away, meaning “lost” in a forgotten, hard-to-locate or distant and “uncivilized” place–away from society, such as a island in the Pacific Ocean.
**A flare gun fires a non-destructive glowing projectile (a flare) into the sky; 1. it is used to send an emergency signal in order for the user to show others his location, so that s/he can be found and rescued. 2. In war time it is used to illuminate where the enemy is.
Answer: The answer is b.: He needs things–most of all those things (the flare gun and lighter), so then he could help himself with them.
Explanation: The answer isn’t a., because if only I had is a conditional clause expressing a wish for the present, not regret about the past. And the answer isn’t c., because who would wish for only some necessary items and not others–and what would be the point of saying this in the narrative (story)?