Couple More Tenses

[yellowho]

1) Coach, the brand that created the very conceit of affordable luxury, [u]has emerged[/u] from its modest origins in the 1940s to become an emblem of the working woman and the remarkably a favorite among the fashion conscious.

[Why isn't emerged correct here? There's nothing in this sentence that suggests continued effect. "emerged" is one of the choices and its wrong]

2) Early royal burials often followed the common Maya practice of home interment, although the temple construction commemorating the burial and the offerings placed in the crypt or tomb [u]are[/u], of course, far more elaborate.

[OA here is were. What's wrong with are. There's no evidence that they are longer more elaborate. To me, either can be correct. Were is slightly better because were captures the fact that it might or might not be more elaborate now while are says definitively that it is more elaborate now. Please comment on my error in logic here.]

[Night reader]

both sentences are dealing with the sequence of tenses; the 1st sentence is enforcing two actions in the past which could not happen at the same time (both in past simple) - there should be some issue.
the 2nd sentence is not to link the past and present actions when they are interrelated

1) Coach, the brand that created the very conceit of affordable luxury, has emerged from its modest origins in the 1940s to become an emblem of the working woman and the remarkably a favorite among the fashion conscious.

[Why isn't emerged correct here? There's nothing in this sentence that suggests continued effect. "emerged" is one of the choices and its wrong]

2) Early royal burials often followed the common Maya practice of home interment, although the temple construction commemorating the burial and the offerings placed in the crypt or tomb are, of course, far more elaborate.

[OA here is were. What's wrong with are. There's no evidence that they are longer more elaborate. To me, either can be correct. Were is slightly better because were captures the fact that it might or might not be more elaborate now while are says definitively that it is more elaborate now. Please comment on my error in logic here.]

[Jim@Grockit]

The implication of the present perfect in #1 is that the emergence is recent; that sense is lost with the simple past, and the emergence could have been any time over the past 60+ years.

In the second sentence, all of this is about EARLY royal burials, and even if they are still placing offerings to this day, the construction of the temples is most definitely finished, and needs a past tense verb to match "followed".

[Geva@EconomistGMAT]

Responding to a PM.

The present perfect is used in two major cases:
(a) actions that occurred at an unknown or unspecified time in the past;
and
(b) Actions that began in the past and are still relevant/in progress at present.

The first sentence above falls under the first case: sometime in the past 70 years since the 1940, Coach has emerged. We don't know what' the exact time, nor do we care - the important message the sentence is trying to convey is that this has already happened.
the same sentence using in 1940 would've merited the past simple emerged, since the date is then known and recognized.

[GMATMadeEasy]

@Geva : how about the second statement ? I agree with the author of the original post that nowhere the question stem tells we should assume past or present ?

[Geva@EconomistGMAT]

@Geva : how about the second statement ? I agree with the author of the original post that nowhere the question stem tells we should assume past or present ?

Although there's nothing technically stopping the verb from using the present tense, the sentence makes more sense with both verbs in the past tense.

Think about what the sentence is trying to say: why is that "although" there? what two elements is it trying to connect with an opposition context? The sentence is trying to say that although the temples were more elaborate, early burials followed went for the home burial practice. It makes more sense to place these two choices at the same time, and then say that the these people opted to place grandmas coffin near the garden shed, even though the posher temple option was available at the same time.

[GMATMadeEasy]

@Geva : thank you . Your explanations are one of the best on the forum. Always complete and of great help.

[Geva@EconomistGMAT]

@Geva : thank you . Your explanations are one of the best on the forum. Always complete and of great help.

You're welcome, and thanks for your kind words!