Sentence Correction

Though the term ''graphic design'' may suggest laying out corporate brochures and annual reports, they have come to signify widely ranging work, from package designs and company logotypes to signs, book jackets,computer graphics, and film titles.

A suggest laying out corporate brochures and annual reports, they have come to signify widely ranging
B suggest laying out corporate brochures and annual reports,it has come to signify a wide range of
C suggest corporate brochure and annual report layout, it has signified widely ranging
D have suggested corporate brochure and annual report layout, it has signified a wide range of
E have suggested laying out corporate brochures and annual reports,they have come to signify widely ranging

O.K. I know which answer is correct and which are wrong, the only thing that concerns me is why HAVE is wrong in answer choice D? I realize that there's other issue with this choice and I know why it does not fit...however OG says that HAVE does not agree with TERM. But we have MAY before have, so I don't get why is it wrong? I realize that term is singular, but we can use HAVE with singular when their is MAY right? For example - He may have done this and that...

IMO B
i think in D, with 'have' might should be used instead of may

Hi,
I don't know what is said in OG but it should say something regarding the use of present perfect tense. It must have probably said that the usage of 'have suggested' is incorrect because present perfect is wrongly used. Can you paste the complete OE so that we can have a better discussion.

Have suggested does not agree with term. That's what the OG says.

I think that the thing is that it still suggests and ahve means that it does not suggest anymore

Hey guys,

Good discussion - if I can offer my explanation for D:

This one comes down to meaning. I don't think there's anything individually wrong with the first part of the sentence and "have". It's not any different than saying:

"I may have suggested that D is right..."

But what makes D wrong, or at least one major flaw with D, is that it transitions between two completely different ideas in the same tense without any way to designate that one has passed and the other is the current state. It treats the two as the same thing when they're totally different. In order to keep them in the same state you'd need some kind of transition like "actually" or "but, in fact" or even "also".

If you'll notice in B, the change in tense/form from "may suggest" to "has come to signify" shows that transition. The essence of the sentence is that the term "Graphic Design" on the surface has a fairly bland meaning but it's actually a thriving fields with all kinds of different responsibilities and functions. We need a sentence structure that reflects that meaning and D misses the boat by matter-of-factly stating those two different meanings in the same form without any differentiation.