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Recent uprising

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Recent uprising

by selango » Wed Oct 27, 2010 8:05 am
In response to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly claimed that their trust in the mayor and the local government is being undermined by reports of political irresponsibility.

a. In response to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly claimed that
b. Responding to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly made the claim about
c. When responding to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly make the claim about
d. As a response to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly made the claim about
e. Responding to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly claim that

[spoiler]Source: Grockit[/spoiler]
Last edited by selango on Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by clock60 » Wed Oct 27, 2010 8:48 am
vote for E
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by shovan85 » Wed Oct 27, 2010 9:28 am
This reminds me the Dangling Modifier.

Between B and E I will go for E as it is in present tense.
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by niksworth » Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:55 am
I think we need claimed here, not claim. We don't have a statement of general truth.

Between A and B, made the claim about in B is unidiomatic.

I would vote for A.
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by shovan85 » Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:58 am
niksworth wrote:I think we need claimed here, not claim. We don't have a statement of general truth.

Between A and B, made the claim about in B is unidiomatic.

I would vote for A.
Why do you think so? I am wondering because the not underlined part contains ARE.
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by kapur.arnav » Wed Oct 27, 2010 11:30 am
selango wrote:In response to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly claimed that their trust in the mayor and the local government are being undermined by reports of political irresponsibility.

a. In response to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly claimed that
b. Responding to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly made the claim about
c. When responding to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly make the claim about
d. As a response to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly made the claim about
e. Responding to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly claim that

[spoiler]Source: Grockit[/spoiler]
I would go with E as I feel we need present continuous here.... Please provide OA with proper reasoning...

Noticed an error in the non underlined part of the sentence.... residents quickly claimed that[/u] their trust in the mayor and the local government are being undermined by reports of political irresponsibility.. trust is singular hence we should use is... :)
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by Arcane66 » Wed Oct 27, 2010 12:11 pm
I pick A.
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by niksworth » Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:09 pm
shovan85 wrote:
niksworth wrote:I think we need claimed here, not claim. We don't have a statement of general truth.

Between A and B, made the claim about in B is unidiomatic.

I would vote for A.
Why do you think so? I am wondering because the not underlined part contains ARE.
Okay. Let us analyze E.

E - Responding to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly claim that their trust in the mayor and the local government are being undermined by reports of political irresponsibility.

If we paraphrase, this sentence says that - Responding to some recent event, resident claim something.

Simple present is used when we have a statement of general truth.
E.g. - I go to school everyday.
I play football in the evenings.

Now, "residents claim something" implies that the resident claim this thing as a regular event, something that happens often and with regularity to merit the use of simple present. However, this is definitely not the situation implied in the given statement. The statement says that "responding to a recent event, the resident have done something". This is a one off thing. Use of simple past is not justified here.

Now let us analyze A

A - In response to the recent uprising in downtown Detroit, residents quickly claimed that their trust in the mayor and the local government are being undermined by reports of political irresponsibility.

Paraphrasing -
In response to a recent event, residents claimed something.

Isn't this much more consistent?

As for the use of are in the "something" part - their trust in the mayor and the local government are being undermined by reports of political irresponsibility. - This denotes something which is happening as of now, something that is still in the process. That is why use of present tense is justified.

If your are confused about the tense shift, consider the following example -
Responding to recent revelations, Anderson claimed that the treasury is looting taxpayers money.

This sentence is perfectly right and mimics the construction of A.

If we change this sentence to mimic E,
Responding to recent revelations, Anderson claims that the treasury is looting taxpayers money.

Clearly this is incorrect.
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by selango » Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:39 pm
OA E

Why not A?

The verb "claimed" is in the past tense, but the subordinate clause contains the verb "is being undermined." It is not logical that a past action could be complete at the same time that another one is ongoing. Both of these verbs need to be in the same tense.
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by niksworth » Wed Oct 27, 2010 10:59 pm
selango wrote:OA E

Why not A?

The verb "claimed" is in the past tense, but the subordinate clause contains the verb "is being undermined." It is not logical that a past action could be complete at the same time that another one is ongoing. Both of these verbs need to be in the same tense.
Hmmm. Not convinced at all.

Looks like I'm having a bad day.
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by patanjali.purpose » Sun Jul 31, 2011 9:27 pm
Hi,

I want to reopen this discussion.

Still not convinced with why E but not A? If its a matter of concision then ok, but not convinced if we say E is better for appropriate usage of verb.

Can you help pls

thanks
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by Jim@Grockit » Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:11 pm
There is a very similar problem in the OG, where the present tense in the not-underlined part dictates the other present tense.

"We are tired."
They say "we are tired."
They say they are tired.

Past tense:
They said "we are tired."
They said they were tired.
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