Sentence Correction

For some birds the sense of smell appears to play a role in navigation, since pigeons with surgically removed olfactory nerves [u]were found to have increased difficulties[/u] in homing.

A. were found to have increased difficulties

B. have been found to have increased difficulty

C. were found to have increasing difficulty

D. had been found to have increased difficulties

E. have been found to have increasing difficulties

i would say B...'increased difficulty in homing' sounds right compared to E...and since the sentence is in present tense...we can forget the remaining options

Rule for present perfect is:

has/have + participle(the +ed form of verb) verb here is increase..its past participle is
increased not increasing....

B rocks

You both are not answering her question. She knows the others are wrong, but wants to know why not E over B.

The birds are only having one problem: homing. There are no difficulties, there is a difficulty. Therefore, it should be B over E.

brb588 wrote:You both are not answering her question. She knows the others are wrong, but wants to know why not E over B.

The birds are only having one problem: homing. There are no difficulties, there is a difficulty. Therefore, it should be B over E.

Finally someone who ACTUALLY reads what the poster ASKS.

Thanks brb588!

"Increasing" also kills it - we cant have a continuous tense here

why not A.
why we need perfect tense here.The situation is not continous and it was over when pigeon reached destination...couldnt get that

Here is how you would go about it

A, D E out for "difficulties"

C out for "increasing"

You have nothing else left to eliminate - right answer

1) I have "difficulties" in Y1 because I cant do X and I cant do Z

2) I have difficulty in Y2 because I cant do X

I cant understand why "difficulty" is preferred over "difficulties". As you can see from example above both of them can be correct.

Any clarifications please, thanks!

I have difficulties would imply singular difficulty in multiple things. Apply that to the sentence and it wont make any sense.