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Tense...

by nandy1984 » Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:39 pm
The results of the company's cost-cutting measures are evident in its profits, which increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it fell over the last two years.
A. which increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it fell
B. which had increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it had fallen
C. which have increased five percent during the first three months of this year after falling
D. with a five percent increase during the first three months of this year after falling
E. with a five percent increase during the first three months of this year after having fallen

D and E : with a 5% increase does not properly relate to the PROFITS so eliminated
B: we cannot mention 2 past perfect tenses in a sentence... "HAD INCREASED" and "HAD FALLEN"...since there should be some action that has followed the past perfect when we are using the perfect tense in a sentence.

Confusion in A and C.....
A: "IT" is wrong as its singular but PROFITS is plural... so eliminate A... finally answer is C....

Is this correct way to do this problem or am i missing some more important verb concept that will help me in future problems????... please share your thoughts and reasons and explanations.... Can you explain a VERB TENSE way of eliminating the answer A... Thanks
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by killer1387 » Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:18 pm
The results of the company's cost-cutting measures are evident in its profits, which increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it fell over the last two years.

A. which increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it fell
--> "it" is wrong cant refer to plural "profits"
--> ALSO the speaker is talking in present tense here hence no need to use past tense.

B. which had increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it had fallen
--> HAD usage wrong

C. which have increased five percent during the first three months of this year after falling
--> CORRECT

D. with a five percent increase during the first three months of this year after falling
E. with a five percent increase during the first three months of this year after having fallen
--> "WITH" changes the desired meaning

HTH
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by nandy1984 » Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:28 pm
killer1387 wrote:The results of the company's cost-cutting measures are evident in its profits, which increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it fell over the last two years.

A. which increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it fell
--> "it" is wrong cant refer to plural "profits"
--> ALSO the speaker is talking in present tense here hence no need to use past tense.

B. which had increased five percent during the first three months of this year after it had fallen
--> HAD usage wrong

C. which have increased five percent during the first three months of this year after falling
--> CORRECT

D. with a five percent increase during the first three months of this year after falling
E. with a five percent increase during the first three months of this year after having fallen
--> "WITH" changes the desired meaning

HTH
Hi,
though the author talks now... he talking about the event that happened last year...so.. sorry i could not get your explanation for eliminating A based on the verb part....
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by [email protected] » Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:33 am
Yes I used the tense parameter to solve this question. Frankly speaking I did not see that the 'it' pronoun was referring the antecedent 'profits' which is plural...

Between options A and C, I chose C as it uses the 'have' which means that the profits have recently increased after the falling of profits of the past 2 years.

Whereas in option A, it means that the profits increased for 3 months after falling for the past 2 years.

Option C states that the increase was very much a recent activity by using 'have'. Remember 'have' always states the event just completed i.e the present perfect tense. whereas the simple present tense does not indicate the actual or the exact timing of the activity.

After 2 years of being in profits, it can also be stated as just a fact as follows:

The organization came into profits after two years of loss making. Hence simple present tense merely says the facts but present perfect tense says the fact with the timing.

I hope I am correct in this aspect...
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by [email protected] » Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:35 am
It is something like you applying a strategy right now and you immediately observing the results of the strategy in the present or just observing the results.

Very minute difference really but still an important difference.

Even I thought option A initially but then got hooked at this small difference.

Hope this helps....
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Thu Apr 05, 2012 7:07 am
Since we're talking about profits in the present tense ("are evident"), we should use present perfect to indicate that they increased before the present time.
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