Sentence Correction

GMATGuruNY wrote:Let's move the events to the present tense:

The announcement says that growth accelerates after slowing in the second quarter.

While the statement above might appear as a newspaper headline, it makes no sense and is grammatically incorrect. Clearly the two actions -- the saying and the accelerating -- are not happening at the same time. Thus, the verbs should not be in the same tense:

The announcement says that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter.

Ah, much better. Now the order of the actions is clear and makes sense.

When the time frame moves into the past, the same logic holds true. Since the two actions are not happening at the same time, different tenses are needed. The present tense verb says becomes the past tense verb said; the past tense verb accelerated becomes the past perfect tense verb had accelerated:

The announcement said that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter.

Hope this helps!

GMATGuruNY wrote:Let's move the events to the present tense:

The announcement says that growth accelerates after slowing in the second quarter.

While the statement above might appear as a newspaper headline, it makes no sense and is grammatically incorrect. Clearly the two actions -- the saying and the accelerating -- are not happening at the same time. Thus, the verbs should not be in the same tense:

The announcement says that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter.

Ah, much better. Now the order of the actions is clear and makes sense.

When the time frame moves into the past, the same logic holds true. Since the two actions are not happening at the same time, different tenses are needed. The present tense verb says becomes the past tense verb said; the past tense verb accelerated becomes the past perfect tense verb had accelerated:

The announcement said that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter.

Hope this helps!

GMATGuruNY wrote:Let's move the events to the present tense:

The announcement says that growth accelerates after slowing in the second quarter.

While the statement above might appear as a newspaper headline, it makes no sense and is grammatically incorrect. Clearly the two actions -- the saying and the accelerating -- are not happening at the same time. Thus, the verbs should not be in the same tense:

The announcement says that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter.

Ah, much better. Now the order of the actions is clear and makes sense.

When the time frame moves into the past, the same logic holds true. Since the two actions are not happening at the same time, different tenses are needed. The present tense verb says becomes the past tense verb said; the past tense verb accelerated becomes the past perfect tense verb had accelerated:

The announcement said that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter.

Hope this helps!

crackthegmat2011 wrote:The original sentence posted by "manjus_mailme" says "remain concerned" and not "remained concerned".

Is A still the correct answer choice ?

zaarathelab wrote:GMATGURUNY, is HAD used only for the earliest event or can it be used to describe intermediary events as well ?

Also, shouldn't slowing be 'HAD SLOWED' since it is earlier than the 'HAD ACCELERATED' event?

Can we use it this way -

....... said that growth had accelerated after it had slowed....??

Pls clarify

Thanks

GMATGuruNY wrote:

zaarathelab wrote:GMATGURUNY, is HAD used only for the earliest event or can it be used to describe intermediary events as well ?

Also, shouldn't slowing be 'HAD SLOWED' since it is earlier than the 'HAD ACCELERATED' event?

Can we use it this way -

....... said that growth had accelerated after it had slowed....??

Pls clarify

Thanks

No. We cannot use the past perfect (had slowed) to express an action completed before another past perfect event (had accelerated).

To bypass the tense issue, the sentence says that growth had accelerated AFTER SLOWING. Because slowing is a gerund -- a verb functioning as a noun -- we don't have to worry about tense. The preposition after makes it clear that had accelerated took place AFTER slowing.