IMO A.

nikhilkatira wrote:Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

A.the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its

B.the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales increased dramatically, its

C.many new restaurants have recently been opened across the country and its sales increased dramatically, the restaurant company's

D.having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company's

E.recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company's

A makes sense. Other options either change the meaning or are grammatically incorrect.

Hi Nikhil. Hope I can help.

Use the portion of the sentence that is not underlined to help you solve. The actions take place at an indeterminate point in the past. This is the 2nd use of the present perfect. Note that the sentence ends with the present perfect: "its sales...have declined" We are looking for a sentence that begins with the present perfect "The company has added many restaurant..and sales have increased..."

This can allow us to eliminate B and C ("sales increased" is past tense). In addition, C through E are very awkwardly written. Specifically, it's not clear that the company added restaurants because in these answers, the main subject is "the company's sales", not the company itself.

The answer is A. A more detailed discussion can be found at GMATPrep Question 2437. To practice similar questions, set topic='Verb tense' and difficulty='500-600'


By the way, the two uses of the present perfect are
I. An action which began in the past but continues through the present. Example: I have been sick all week.
II. An action which happened at an indeterminate point in the past. Example: I have been to Mexico.

Hope that helps,
-Patrick