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A March 2000 Census Bureau survey showed that Mexico

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by aspirant2011 » Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:29 am
A March 2000 Census Bureau survey showed that Mexico accounted for more than a quarter of all foreign-born residents of the United States, the largest share for any country to contribute since 1890, when about 30 percent of the country's foreign-born population was from Germany.

A. the largest share for any country to contribute
B. the largest share that any country has contributed
C. which makes it the largest share for any country to contribute
D. having the largest share to be contributed by any country
E. having the largest share to have been contributed by any country

[spoiler]OA: I marked the answer as B but the OA given is A.Can someone please explain why A is correct because I feel that with the usage of since verb form of has/have is supposed to be used.[/spoiler]
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by Cheers123 » Wed Jun 22, 2011 6:36 am
Are you sure the OA is A? I believe the OA is B.
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by gsinghal » Wed Jun 22, 2011 6:43 am
Hi aspirant2011,

IMO A

I somewhere read on the BTG in of the posts that when since is used, simple past is preferred rather than present perfect, for since already shows that the action started in the past and is there in the present as well. So, no need of present perfect again to show the same thing. Better is to use simple past when using Since. My .02$

Also, if anyone can help me with when it is write to use "Having" in the sentence. Any help is appreciated.


Thanks
Gautam
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by abhishek.pati » Wed Jun 22, 2011 7:21 am
IMO B
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by sameerballani » Wed Jun 22, 2011 7:35 am
aspirant2011 wrote:A March 2000 Census Bureau survey showed that Mexico accounted for more than a quarter of all foreign-born residents of the United States, the largest share for any country to contribute since 1890, when about 30 percent of the country's foreign-born population was from Germany.

A. the largest share for any country to contribute
B. the largest share that any country has contributed
Good one. I will try.
"Since 1890" is not showing that the action of contribution is going on since 1890. It is probably used just for time reference.
also note that this statement is more sort of a general statement.
My reasoning is based on Meaning.
I hope i make some sense

Thanks
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by ov25 » Wed Jun 22, 2011 7:44 am
@Aspirant2011,

I am stumped too.. I think the OA should be B

On a second thought..it may be a matter of 'for' vs 'that'

Inviting experts here is the best thing imo
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Wed Jun 22, 2011 8:23 am
One pretty clarification here, everyone:

"Since" should be a large indicator that you need to use the present-perfect tense. You really can't use simple past with "since", because "since" sets the timeline from that point up to and including right now.

Examples:

I have been studying for the GMAT since April.

She has been a member of the executive board since 2009.

Even if you were to tweak that sentence to include a simple past event, look at how that sets up:

She has been a member of the executive board since she replaced Mary in 2009.

"Has been" indicates the action from 2009 through now; "she replaced" is just the 2009 one-time event.


In this sentence, "has contributed" is important - we're looking at all of the contributions from 1890 up to and including right now ("since 1890"). So past-perfect is the logical tense to use here.


If A is listed as the OA, I'd say it's 99% likely that it's just a typo. I'd quickly and confidently pick B here.
Brian Galvin
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Veritas Prep

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by Target2009 » Wed Jun 22, 2011 8:28 am
Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:One pretty clarification here, everyone:

"Since" should be a large indicator that you need to use the present-perfect tense. You really can't use simple past with "since", because "since" sets the timeline from that point up to and including right now.

Examples:

I have been studying for the GMAT since April.

She has been a member of the executive board since 2009.

Even if you were to tweak that sentence to include a simple past event, look at how that sets up:

She has been a member of the executive board since she replaced Mary in 2009.

"Has been" indicates the action from 2009 through now; "she replaced" is just the 2009 one-time event.


In this sentence, "has contributed" is important - we're looking at all of the contributions from 1890 up to and including right now ("since 1890"). So past-perfect is the logical tense to use here.


If A is listed as the OA, I'd say it's 99% likely that it's just a typo. I'd quickly and confidently pick B here.
Agree with Brian. I too picked B.
Regards
Abhishek
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by gsinghal » Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:05 am
Thanks Brian.. for clarifying the concept.


Thanks
Gautam
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by aspirant2011 » Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:59 am
Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:One pretty clarification here, everyone:

"Since" should be a large indicator that you need to use the present-perfect tense. You really can't use simple past with "since", because "since" sets the timeline from that point up to and including right now.

Examples:

I have been studying for the GMAT since April.

She has been a member of the executive board since 2009.

Even if you were to tweak that sentence to include a simple past event, look at how that sets up:

She has been a member of the executive board since she replaced Mary in 2009.

"Has been" indicates the action from 2009 through now; "she replaced" is just the 2009 one-time event.


In this sentence, "has contributed" is important - we're looking at all of the contributions from 1890 up to and including right now ("since 1890"). So past-perfect is the logical tense to use here.


If A is listed as the OA, I'd say it's 99% likely that it's just a typo. I'd quickly and confidently pick B here.
thanks a ton brian for clarifying the doubt :-)
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by Sanjay2706 » Wed Jun 22, 2011 11:21 pm
My Vote is for B.
I don't think A is the right answer.
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by vzzai » Mon Oct 17, 2011 3:24 am
"...United States, the largest share.." - Is "the largest share" to modifying United States?
then B is wrong!. Please help to provide clarity.
Thank you,
Vj
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by garima99 » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:33 am
B it is
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by GmatKiss » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:50 am
Picked B as well!
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by amit.saxena » Fri Oct 21, 2011 9:50 am
I think OA A makes perfect sense. In B) the has/have is redundant and not necessary to convey the meaning of the sentence.

Even B is correct but the second best option after A.
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