2 tenses in a sentence - SC Question #99

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2 tenses in a sentence - SC Question #99

by gmatgmat » Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:59 am
Although the manager agreed to a more flexible work schedule, he said that it must be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor will know what everyone is assigned to do.

(A) he said that it must be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor will know what everyone is
(B) he said it had to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor knows what everyone is
(C) he said that they would have to post the assignments on the bulletin board so that management and labor knew what everyone was
(D) he said that the schedule would have to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor would know what everyone was
(E) saying that the schedule had to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor would know what everyone had been

OA: A'

The answer is A here. so it's possible to have 2 tenses in a sentence - depends on the idea in the sentence? am i right?

Please help :)
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by Suyog » Thu Aug 21, 2008 10:48 am
Manhattan SC# Chap 3. Verb Tense, Mood & Voice

There is a section in this chapter... which talks about ur doubt...

Sometimes more than one action do require you to switch verb tenses within a sentence.

e.g. He IS thin now because he SPENT the last six month on intensive diet.

Is - Present tense and Spent - Past tense.

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by pranavc » Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:39 am
Why is D wrong?

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by stubbornp » Thu Aug 21, 2008 8:44 pm
pranavc wrote:Why is D wrong?
D is lengthy and also uses TO BE

A is better one

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by pranavc » Sat Aug 23, 2008 12:36 pm
That makes sense. Thank you.

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by nittinj » Sat Aug 23, 2008 12:46 pm
D - what everyone 'was' assigned to do....

does not make sense everyboody should know upfront what they are supposed to do..

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gmatgmat wrote:Although the manager agreed to a more flexible work schedule, he said that it must be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor will know what everyone is assigned to do.

(A) he said that it must be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor will know what everyone is
(B) he said it had to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor knows what everyone is
(C) he said that they would have to post the assignments on the bulletin board so that management and labor knew what everyone was
(D) he said that the schedule would have to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor would know what everyone was
(E) saying that the schedule had to be posted on the bulletin board so that both management and labor would know what everyone had been


The action of the mgmnt and Labor must follow the posting which A correctly does. D makes them both conditionally in the future

OA: A'

The answer is A here. so it's possible to have 2 tenses in a sentence - depends on the idea in the sentence? am i right?

Please help :)

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by 786 » Thu Jul 08, 2010 11:35 pm
The fight is between A and D .

I think D uses reported speech and that is perfectly fine , Isn't it ?

Experts , please throw some light .

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by Haaress » Fri Jul 09, 2010 12:34 pm
I tend to agree with 786. Please provide the source. Thanks for the question.

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