Reporting that one of its many problems had been the recent

BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

This topic has expert replies

Post new topic Locked

Previous Topic Next Topic

BTGmoderatorRO: Moderator; Posts: 772; Joined: Wed Aug 30, 2017 6:29 pm; Followed by:6 members

Reporting that one of its many problems had been the recent

by BTGmoderatorRO » Sun Mar 18, 2018 12:58 am

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
OA is a

What is the correct answer, please? There are so confusing. please help me out. Thank you

Quote

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Mar 18, 2018 12:58 am

GMAT/MBA Expert

ErikaPrepScholar: Legendary Member; Posts: 503; Joined: Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:03 am; Thanked: 86 times; Followed by:15 members; GMAT Score:770

Subject

by ErikaPrepScholar » Wed Mar 28, 2018 7:10 am

First difference between the answer choices: "its" vs. "their". "Retailer" is singular (it's referred to as "it" later in the sentence). So all options with "their" (plural) can be eliminated. Watch out for switches between singular and plural in answer choices - it's an easy clue.

Second difference: tense ("had been" vs. "has been" vs. "is"). "Had been" is past perfect (happened before an event in the past), "has been" is present perfect (happened before the present), and "is" is present. The sentence describes how the retailer "said" (past tense) it would start a liquidation sale in response to the extended sales slump. This means that the sales slump happened before the retailed said it would start the liquidation sale - so the slump occurred before an event in the past ("said"). This makes past perfect the correct tense, so we pick A. When you're unsure of tense, making a timeline of the events in the sentence can help clarify when different events occurred relative to other events (especially when dealing with perfect or continuous tenses).