Sentence Correction

16.Reporting that one of its many problems had been the recent extended sales slump in women's apparel, the seven-store retailer said it would start a three-month liquidation sale in all of its stores.
A. its many problems had been the recent
B. its many problems has been the recently
C. its many problems is the recently
D. their many problems is the recent
E. their many problems had been the recent


WHy cannot we mark C as the answer, considering that the problem is occurring presently(is) and while reporting, the retailer is informing about a future course of action that he may undertake(would)

Apoorva@5 wrote:16.Reporting that one of its many problems had been the recent extended sales slump in women's apparel, the seven-store retailer said it would start a three-month liquidation sale in all of its stores.
A. its many problems had been the recent
B. its many problems has been the recently
C. its many problems is the recently
D. their many problems is the recent
E. their many problems had been the recent


WHy cannot we mark C as the answer, considering that the problem is occurring presently(is) and while reporting, the retailer is informing about a future course of action that he may undertake(would)

In this case, recently is a adverb and it cannot modify a noun: "extended sales slump".
Moreover, this statement is talking about the things of the past as the non underlines statement contains "recently extended slump."

B. Recently extended sales slump