The Wallerstein study

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The Wallerstein study

by Amadalia » Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:27 am
The Wallerstein study indicates that even after a decade young men and women still experience some of the effects of a divorce occurring when a child.
(A) occurring when a child
(B) occurring when children
(C) that occurred when a child
(D) that occurred when they were children
(E) that has occurred as each was a child

OA is D that's ok , but i have one question:
I've eliminated A and B because occuring is a present participle and present participle generally takes the tense of the main clause which is present is this case, which means that the divorce is happening at the present time and otherwise makes the sentence nonsencical?
am I right??
Many thanks in advance
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by [email protected] » Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:14 pm
Hi amadalia,

You correctly eliminated answers A and B. Verbs that end in -ing are sometimes referred to as "timeless" verbs, meaning that they're not exclusive to one point in time.

For example: Scientists discovered an asteroid hurtling through space.

Even those the Scientists made their discovery in the past, the asteroid was hurtling through space even further in the past, at the moment that it was discovered and will likely continue hurtling through space in the future (thus, the proper verb is an -ing verb, one that is "timeless").

In this prompt, the "intent" of the sentence is to refer to an event that happened in the past, so eliminating A and B makes sense.

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by Amadalia » Sun Mar 23, 2014 4:26 am
Thanks Rich!!!

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by ceilidh.erickson » Mon Mar 24, 2014 11:13 am
The primary problem with A and B is one of meaning, not of tense.

"Occurring" is a present participle modifying "divorce." The relative pronoun "when" is thus modifying "occurring." Thus, "when a child" or "when children" implies that "divorce" was either a child or children, rather than the men and women. This doesn't make sense. We need to introduce "they" to refer back to men and women.
Ceilidh Erickson
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Harvard Graduate School of Education

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by Amadalia » Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:19 am
Good point ceilidh!!! thanks a lot!!!

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