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Reporting that one of its many problems had been the

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Reporting that one of its many problems had been the

by aditya8062 » Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:49 pm
Reporting that one of its many problems had been the recent extended sales slump in women's apparel, the seven-store retailer said it would start a three month liquidation sale in all of its stores.
(A) its many problems had been the recent
(B) its many problems has been the recently
(C) its many problems is the recently
(D) their many problems is the recent
(E) their many problems had been the recent

i have following difficulty with this question :
why do we need past perfect in this problem .option A uses word "recent" .my logic is if something is "recent" that means that the problem is ongoing or at least its effects are still there .so aren't we suppose to use present perfect ?

also why "recently" is wrong ? initially i thought that recently is acting as adverb to modify extended
what makes A better than B
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by Tommy Wallach » Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:54 pm
What is the source of this aditya?

-t
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by aditya8062 » Wed Feb 27, 2013 12:05 am
initially i saw this problem in gmat club . but when u asked for the source i goggled it .this problem is actually from verbal review 2nd edition (the blue book )page 253 problem 48
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by sana.noor » Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:57 am
OG explanation is:
"The correct use of pronoun reference, verb tense,
and modifier make the sentence clear and easy to
understand. The singular possessive pronoun its
refers to the singular noun retailer. The past
perfect verb had been indicates action completed
before the action in the simple past ten se said. The
adjective recent modifies extended sales slump.

I selected B but i guess A is the right answer.
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by Tommy Wallach » Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:22 am
Hey Aditya,

Fair enough. Always worth remembering that there are plenty of official question that have a weird sound to them.

Indeed, the only real issues here are the singular pronoun its (matching up with retailer), and the past perfect verb (because we need to go back in time BEFORE the simple past "said").

As for recently, that's an easy one. "Recently" is an adverb, but we want to modify "slump," which is a noun. It doesn't make any sense for it to modify extended, because of meaning.

extended |ikˈstendid|
adjective
made larger; enlarged: an extended kitchen and new balcony.
"¢ lasting longer than is usual or expected; prolonged: an extended period of time.

The recently extended run of "Wicked" on Broadway has now reached its 1000th week. [1st definition]
The recent extended sales slump could result in bankruptcy. [2nd definition]

In the first example, someone has purposely extended the run of something, and that extension occurred recently.

In the second example, "extended" merely means "lasting longer than is usual". This is the only meaning that makes sense, because no one would purposely extend a sales slump. It's a bad thing!

Does that help?

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by aditya8062 » Wed Feb 27, 2013 10:06 am
To Tommy Wallach
good day
thanks for that wonderful explanation .well now i know why i need "recent" here and not "recently"
however i want to ask will B be right if written as follow:

Reporting that one of its many problems has been the recent extended sales slump in women's apparel, the seven-store retailer said it would start a three month liquidation sale in all of its stores.
or will it be still wrong coz that time distinction that u told is missing ?
honestly what perplexed me when i saw this question was that when something is recent then aren't we suppose to use present perfect and for this reason i shifted to wrong choice B,though now ,after reading ur excellent explanation ,i realize that recent is needed but how do i reconcile past perfect and recent?
thanks and regards
aditya
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by Tommy Wallach » Wed Feb 27, 2013 10:15 am
Hey Aditya,

Yeah, that's a tough one. I personally prefer the present perfect, because the implication of the sentence is that the action of the slump does continue into the present (they said they would start a liquidation, meaning they haven't yet). So I believe both tenses are justifiable, but the "recently" issue forces us into past perfect.

Hope that helps!

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by darkmagician383 » Wed Feb 27, 2013 11:12 am
Split:
recent - (adjective)
vs.
recently - (adverb)

what is being modified? -- a noun (extended sales slump)

Use adjective to modify a noun.
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