jackspire wrote:
What a beautiful and logical explanation.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you so much for the kind words,
jackspire! Glad that the explanations are useful sometimes.
ilya56rus wrote:
A is good, but one thing: there is a obsequies of events, but author uses Present perfect two times.
In my opinion it would be better if Past Perfect would be used for first event.
Because an oversupply of computer chips had sent prices plunging, the manufacturer has announced that it will cut production by closing its factories for two days a month.
Please somebody explain where I am wrong.
Thanks, BR
A few thoughts,
ilya56rus: first, the option you proposed isn't an option, so it's a non-issue! The best approach on SC is to
find the four answers that are the most severely flawed. So it's not helpful to start coming up with alternative options that aren't even there -- at least not when you're taking an actual exam.
I understand where you're coming from, though. Trouble is, this actually wouldn't be correct on the GMAT:
ilya56rus wrote:
Because an oversupply of computer chips had sent prices plunging, the manufacturer has announced that it will cut production by closing its factories for two days a month.
The problem is that the past perfect tense verb ("had sent") can only be used as the first of two past actions. So for this to be correct, you would basically need to have some other verb in simple past tense. And we don't have that here: instead, "the manufacturer has announced" (present perfect tense, if you like the terminology) indicates an action that starts in the past and continues into the present.
And maybe there's an exception that I can't quite imagine, but it wouldn't really make sense to use the past perfect ("had sent") with the present perfect ("has announced"), since that last action would continue into the present.
But what about the actual version in the correct answer?
Quote:
Because an oversupply of computer chips has sent prices plunging, the manufacturer has announced that it will cut production by closing its factories for two days a month.
There's no problem there at all. Both actions in bold ("has sent prices plunging" and "the manufacturer has announced") started in the past and continue in the present -- or at the very least, we can easily imagine that the manufacturer's announcement continues to be relevant in the present. I suppose the phrase "has sent prices plunging" implies that prices are STILL plunging in the present, but there's nothing inherently wrong with that.
Could we find better ways to write the sentence? Sure! In most cases, correct SC sentences aren't all that great, and a good editor would rip most of them to shreds. But there's nothing WRONG with (A), and there are plenty of flaws in the other choices.
I hope this helps!