imo:A

azazel77 wrote:968. Interest rates on mortgages have declined steadily during the first six months of this year but virtually remained unchanged during the next three months.
(A) have declined steadily during the first six months of this year but virtually remained unchanged
(B) declined steadily during the first six months of this year but virtually remain unchanged
(C) steadily declined during the first six months of this year but remain virtually unchanged
(D) declined steadily during the first six months of this but have remained virtually unchanging’
(E) declined steadily during the first six months of this year but have remained virtually unchanged

Can someone explain the answer for this... I am confused among A, B and E

Thanks in advance

E ?

IMO E.

me too E

what is wrong wit A??

i think it's E cause the use of have plus mean continuous..

OA is E

But how do we know from the sentence it has to be be Present Perfect i.e. the use of "Have" ? "but virtually remain unchanged" might be something which happended in Past ?

does some know why E is correct? . I went for B

IMO the best answer is

declined steadily during the first six months of this year but remained virtually unchanged


Comments please

Stop@800

Can you please explain the reason of putting "steadilly" after declined ?

Gmatss wrote:i think it's E cause the use of have plus mean continuous..

'E' is Correct.

'Have' is Present Perfect Tense which means that one must use have for an action which started in the past and is still happening.

In answer choice 'A' HAVE is used for the first 6 months which already happened whereas in 'E' HAVE is used for the next 3 months which might have already happened or might still be going on.

Note: Just like 'Have' 'Has' is also present perfect tense (used only for singular subjects though)

Hope this helps!

stop@800 wrote:IMO the best answer is

declined steadily during the first six months of this year but remained virtually unchanged


Comments please

TRUE - That is the best answer.

If you "listen" to the sentence : "interest rates on mortgages have declined steadily during the first six months of this year but virtually remained unchanged during the next three months"

There seems to be no indication that the next three months are in fact happening now. This sentence seems more indicative OF the fact that X happened for Some time and then Y happened for the remaining period
It immediately stands out that Y happened

Hence : remained virtually unchanged seems more logical than have remained virtually unchanged
We don't know that in fact they HAVE remained virtually unchanged!!! That seems to be adding extra information that slightly distorts the original meaning

The answer should be E for the following reasons

A) We use have to indicate an event that started in past and is still continuing in the present.So how can you define an even that was completed 6 months before a past event [usage of remained] as a present perfect?

B) Remain is an incorrect form,because we are already know what the rates were for the past 3 months.Can you use present tense for some action that began in past? You may argue that the rates may still be the same.In that case the correct tense is present perfect,for it indicates an action that began in past and continues into the present.

In short you can either have remain in past tense form-remained- or in the present perfect tense -have remained.

If remain is in past tense then declined should be in past perfect tense.
If remain is in present perfect then declined should be in simple past tense.

C) Same error as in B

D) unchanging is in possessive form and is an adjective.Only nouns can be in possessive.

You say Mike's car.

You don't say Beautiful's car.

E) The correct sentence.

declined-past tense
remained-present perfect
unchanged-adjective