Rabu, 31 Mei 2017
12. Style Written in English
First, some practice questions.
1) The spokeswoman for the national
laboratory announced that, while the lab had been operating at a loss in the
1990s, it had become profitable in 2006, and would continue to yield high
profits at least until 2025.
(A) had been operating at a loss in
the 1990s, it had become profitable in 2006, and would continue
(B) had been operating at a loss in
the 1990s, it became profitable in 2006, and would continue
(C) had been operating at a loss in
the 1990s, it became profitable in 2006, continuing
(D) operated at a loss in the 1990s,
it became profitable in 2006, and would continue
(E) operated at a loss in the 1990s,
becoming profitable in 2006, and continuing
2) When the reporter asked about the
status of the budget, the governor said that, at that very moment, his team is
fashioning a compromise and will deliver it to the senate offices by later
that afternoon.
(A) is fashioning a compromise and
will deliver
(B) fashions a compromise and will
deliver
(C) was fashioning a compromise and
would deliver
(D) had been fashioning a compromise
and would deliver
(E) has fashioned a compromise and
will deliver
3) The people of the ancient
Near East believed that the Earth’s dry land first appeared when the
Creator has separated the “water above” from the “water below,” and that there
is another ocean in the sky, above the firmament.
(A) appeared when the Creator has
separated the “water above” from the “water below,” and that there is
(B) appeared as the Creator was
separating the “water above” from the “water below,” and that there would be
(C) had appeared as the Creator has
separated the “water above” from the “water below,” and that there is
(D) had appeared when the Creator
had separated the “water above” from the “water below,” and that there was
(E) has appeared with the Creator
having separated the “water above” from the “water below,” and that there was
Solutions will follow this article.
A
review of tenses
Verbs have simple tenses (ordinary
past, present, and future) as well as perfect tenses,
progressive tenses, and even progressive perfect tenses. Here’s a brief
list of examples for the verb “to go” (an irregular verb), with both singular
and plural forms.
Simple past: he went, they went
Simple present: she goes, they go
Simple future: he will go, they will go
Past perfect: she had gone, they had gone
Present perfect: he has gone, they have gone
Future perfect: she will have gone, they will have gone
Past progressive: he was going, they were going
Present progressive: she is going, they are going
Future progressive: he will be going, they will be going
Past perfect progressive: she had been going, they had been going
Present perfect progressive: he has been going, they have been going
Future perfect progressive: she will have been going, they will have been going
Obviously, those last three tenses
are somewhat rare, but in the right context, they could show up on the GMAT.
Sequence
of tenses
Suppose we have a sentence, a
statement of fact, which has past & present & future in it. For
example,
P did X, does Y, and will
do Z.
Now, suppose that, whatever these
facts are, they are important enough for someone else to announce them, or tell
them, or think them, or believe them. In fact, we might use any of the idioms of thinking and knowing or any of the [verb] + “that”-clause idioms here.
Someone else announced that P ____
X, _____Y, and _____ Z.
This is called indirect speech.
The big question is: what tenses do we use when we change from a description of
the events themselves to a spoken or thought “that”-clause in the past about
the events? In other words, what’s the right tense within indirect
speech? This subject is the sequence of tenses, and the rules are
relatively simple. What we sorta do is back everything up to a
previous-time tense
a. the present tense real event
becomes past: (does Y) becomes (did Y)
b. the past tense real event becomes
past perfect: (did X) becomes (had done X)
c. the future tense real event —
this is a tricky one. You may thing future goes back to present or to
future perfect, but neither of those are correct. We actually use the subjunctive
for a hypothetical future: (will do Z) becomes (would do Z).
d. anything progressive would stay
progressive, following the above rules; for example, (was doing omega)
becomes (had been doing omega)
Thus, our indirect speech sentence
above would be
Someone else announced that P had
done X, did Y, and would do Z.
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