At a recent conference, the transit authority has stated that the prov

At a recent conference, the transit authority has stated that the provisions in the Clean Air Act fail to promote mass transit as an alternative to private transportation.
The sentence tell that conference is already over. Secondly there are no two actions that need to be distingushed on the basis of time. Hence we need simple past..
1) has stated that the provisions in the Clean Air Act fail---out because of above reasons
2) stated that the provisions of the Clean Air Act fail--right
3) has stated that the provisions of the Clean Air Act will fail---out because of above reasons
4) stated that the provisions in the Clean Air Act are a failure---this is redundant and kind of exaggerates the option
5) has stated the provisions in the Clean Air Act failed---out because of above reasons

Verb tense rules: Unless there is a REASON, keep the tenses in the verb SIMPLE (simple>progressive or perfect) and CONSISTENT (Change tenses only if you have to)
will failed: future + past - incorrect usage! E eliminated.
Recent conferece means the conference is already over: simple past should suffice here. there is no reason for the use of past perfect - only when a later past action is present in the sentence. this is not the case here. the only other action - failing - happens before the stating, not after- and thus has stated is worng)
Choice between B and D : verb is always preferable to action noun. e.g invest> make an investment; refer > make a reference; and so fail> are a failure.
Hence, choose B.
Note that: '....stated that provisions had failed' would have been correct too.. two actions, stating happens in simple past, failing is one step further away in past and hence had failed is correct.

Why is A incorrect? I am not very convinced with the argument that 'provisions in' makes A incorrect. It uses present perfect, not past perfect, and is an acceptable form to describe an event that occurred very recently.

Adam has finished his cereal. Please let me know if im conceptually incorrect.

On second thought, present perfect is used when an action occurs in the past and continues on to the present; the authority's action does not continue on to present. Maybe thats why A is incorrect.

OreoShake, that's correct. There are two possible reasons to use present tense for a single recent event such as "Adam has finished his cereal":

1) He has just finished quite recently and the author wants to update us on this urgent situation.
2) We're describing an accomplishment. In this case, the "continues into the present" just means that the accomplishment stands. I can say "I have been to France" or "I have been awarded a Nobel Prize," even if I am no longer in France or my Nobel Prize has been revoked.

In the case of the transit authority sentence, neither of these cases applies. #2 is out because we're not stating an accomplishment. #1 isn't necessary because we already made it clear when this happened: at a recent press conference.

In general, it's useful to keep in mind that the requirements for perfect tenses (both present and past) tell us when we can use these forms, not when we should. If a perfect tense isn't needed to make our intended meaning clear, we should use a simpler tense.

Hello DmitryFarber

In this sentence, we know that the conference took place recently but whatever the transit authority stated is still true in the present context. So shouldn't we use present perfect tense "has stated" to make this more clear?


Thanks

B is the best choice.
But i have a doubt regarding tense use in B . Fail or failed ..as per logic of the sentence ,some task is already completed , why present tense in used here (fail despite of using failed).

Shiv2016, the present perfect gives us information about the actual action in that tense, so it applies to the words "has stated." That doesn't tell us anything about whether what was stated continues to be true. Consider these:

I said that I was married.
I said that I am married.
I have said that I am married.

In the first case, the action ("said") is in the past. At some point in the past, I said that I was married. This says nothing about whether I am married now, but it doesn't preclude my being so. In other words, using the past tense doesn't mean that I have stopped being married! It just tells you about when I said what I said.

The second sentence makes it clear that I am married now. The action of speaking is in the past, but I would only use this form if the action had happened very recently. It would not work to say "When I started this job 20 years ago, I said that I am married."

The third sentence implies that I have referred to being married before, perhaps repeatedly, and that this reflects the current state of things. However, this is no more "correct" for showing that I am still married now than sentence two is.

A shorter answer is that we have to pick. We can use "at a recent conference" or "has stated," but not both. Any sentence that starts with "At a recent conference, the transit authority has stated" can be ruled out without any need to read further.

sobby, there's no indication that the action is completed. If the Clean Air Act is still in place, then its provisions can still fail, since the law continues to do (or fail to do) the same thing. Similarly, I might say "state law forbids the use of narcotics" or "the Farm Bill encourages farmers to grow surplus crops." We'd only use "failed" if the Act were no longer in place, and we don't know that that's the case.

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

B.

When you scan the choices, notice you have to choose between three that begin with “has stated” and two that begin with “stated.” Many GMAT sentence com- pletions exhibit this “3-2 split”answer choice pattern. Use this to your advantage. Begin by deciding which of the two forms, “has stated” or “stated,” is correct. This is strategic: You deal with one small problem at a time, and narrow your choices down. The Transit Authority made their statement and it was over. The action didn’t continue. So you should say “the Transit Authoritystated.” (B), “the provisions fail to promote mass transit” is more concise than (D), “the provi- sions are a failure to promote mass transit.”

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