sondenso wrote:
In 1997, despite an economy that marked its sixth full year of uninterrupted expansion with the lowest jobless rate in a quarter century, the number of United States citizens declaring themselves bankrupt has jumped by almost 20 percent, at 1.34 million.
(B) declaring themselves bankrupt jumped by almost 20 percent, to
(C) who declared themselves bankrupt has jumped by almost 20 percent, to
warrior1991 wrote:
generis VeritasKarishma GMATNinjaIf option C were changed to the one below, which among the two would be correct.
Quote:
(C) who declared themselves bankrupt has jumped by almost 20 percent, to
(B) declaring themselves bankrupt jumped by almost 20 percent, to
Please help.
warrior1991 , yes, if (C) were written the way you describe (see below), the sentence would correctly describe what happened in 1997.
• Your version of (C)C) In 1997, despite an economy that marked its sixth full year of uninterrupted expansion with the lowest jobless rate in a quarter century, the number of United States citizens
who declared themselves bankrupt jumped by almost 20 percent, to 1.34 million.
Correct. Strip the sentence.
The number of citizens who
declared themselves bankrupt
jumped by almost 20 percent, to 1.34 million.
The relative clause ("who declared themselves bankrupt") has a verb in past tense that is consistent with "jumped."
By contrast, in B, the participle phrase does not have a working verb. We find the time frame for "declaring" from "jumped."*
This construction is fine; the sentence describes what happened in 1997 (as does correct option B).
*B) In 1997, despite an economy that marked its sixth full year of uninterrupted expansion with the lowest jobless rate in a quarter century, the number of United States citizens [then] declaring themselves bankrupt jumped by almost 20 percent, to 1.34 million.
• (B) may sound unusual to non-native speakers.
-- Participles do not have tense, even though we name them present and past participles.
-- We find the time frame for the participle from the main verb.
-- The main verb is jumped. Simple past tense: in 1997. "Declaring" is what the citizens did in that time frame in the past.
Informally (do not write this way in essays): Back then (at that time, in 1997), the number of people declaring themselves bankrupt jumped by almost 20 percent, to 1.34 million.
**As it stands, Option (C) is nonsensical.
In 1997, ABC has jumped by X percent, to 1.34 million.
Present perfect is inappropriate in option (C). This site, here summarizes present perfect nicely.