It is possible that Native Americans

sachin_yadav wrote:Hi,

I would like to discuss the below question. I am not good enough in tenses. Please help.

It is possible that Native Americans originally have migrated to the Western Hemisphere over a bridge of land that once existed between Siberia and Alaska.

A) have migrated to the Western Hemisphere over a bridge of land that once existed
B) were migrating to the Western Hemisphere over a bridge of land that existed once
C) migrated over a bridge of land to the Western Hemisphere that once existed
D) migrated to the Western Hemisphere over a bridge of land that once existed
E) were migrating to the Western Hemisphere over a bridge of land existing once

Answer is D

Thanks & Regards
Sachin

Tani Wolff - Kaplan wrote:"Have migrated" is present perfect, meaning the action is continuing into the present. It is clear from context that this migration happened many years ago.

The correct form is the simple past "migrated".

sachin_yadav wrote:Thanks Tani. What about B and E, "were migrating" ? In my opinion this is past continuous that means action continuing in the past, but context says that the action is completed. Am i correct ?

Regards
Sachin

Tani Wolff - Kaplan wrote:"Have migrated" is present perfect, meaning the action is continuing into the present. It is clear from context that this migration happened many years ago.

The correct form is the simple past "migrated".

vaibhavgupta wrote:
Yes!

sachin_yadav wrote:

vaibhavgupta wrote:
Yes!

Thanks buddy, but i was thinking if i can get some experts advice on this. Tenses just freaks me out. Just want to confirm from an expert. I hope you don't mind.

Thanks
Sachin

Jim@Grockit wrote:I got a PM about this question.

The thing about past progressive tense ("were migrating") is that it's usually used of ongoing actions in the past that were interrupted, or during which time some other action happened.
We were hiding in the bushes when a dog bit us.
She was sitting in the car while her friend went into the store.

Even the answer to the question What were you doing? I was cleaning this shelf. implies an action interrupted by the questioner.