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a tense question

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a tense question

by Amadalia » Mon Jan 20, 2014 4:19 am
Since 1993, when it passed a referendum approving casino gambling, the town of Riverside, Missouri, was using casino tax revenue to improve its streets, sewers, building, and other public works.

(a) approving casino gambling, the town of Riverside, Missouri, was
(C) approved casino gambling, the town of Riverside, Missouri, had been
(D) approving casino gambling, the town of Riverside, Missouri, had been



Ans D

my problem isn't with the answer but with the use of the form of the present perfect "has been using" as I was expecting "has used" instead.
Many thanks in advance
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by Mike@Magoosh » Wed Jan 22, 2014 1:18 pm
Amadalia wrote:Since 1993, when it passed a referendum approving casino gambling, the town of Riverside, Missouri, was using casino tax revenue to improve its streets, sewers, building, and other public works.

(a) approving casino gambling, the town of Riverside, Missouri, was
(C) approved casino gambling, the town of Riverside, Missouri, had been
(D) approving casino gambling, the town of Riverside, Missouri, had been



Ans D

my problem isn't with the answer but with the use of the form of the present perfect "has been using" as I was expecting "has used" instead.
Many thanks in advance
Dear Amadalia
I'm happy to respond. Is your screen name a reference to the queen of Naboo?

What is the source of this question? You are perfectly correct. The conjunction "since" suggest that in the time from 1993 until the present, Riverside was using tax money for the public works. That would justify the use of the present perfect, "has been." The past perfect, "had been", is 100% wrong in this context. See:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-verb- ... ct-tenses/
My friend, there are myriad low quality practice GMAT SC questions available on the web, many of them for free. It's extraordinarily easy to write a poor quality SC question: folks write these, and then advertise them as completely legitimate. Caveat emptor. Don't assume that a practice SC question has any value at all simply because someone with no credentials claims that it's a good question. MGMAT has excellent questions. Most of the Veritas questions have seen have been of very high quality. Here's another high quality SC question:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/3284
When you submit your answer, the following screen will have a full video explanation.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Mike :-)
Magoosh GMAT Instructor
https://gmat.magoosh.com/
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by Amadalia » Fri Jan 24, 2014 6:54 am
Hi Mike,thanks a lot for your reply
Just wanted to tell you that your website is amazing and that the video explanations of the OG are just woow
Thanks to God, I progressed a lot since i started vewing them.
really good job
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