Interest rates on mortgages have declined steadily during the first

Almost picked bee but realized that B had remain not remained...

A: have is in the wrong place
B: two simple tenses work, but this is not the case in B
C: steadily declined is kinda akward and again this sentence still has the same problem as B... "remain"
D:I assume year is not in this sentence b/c of a typo. Anyway "have remained virtually unchanging" is akward and doesn't really make much sense.

E: is the only choice that makes any sense.

My answer is E and I'd eliminate all but E and C. This one's a toughie +1

OA is E. Very interesting question. Here's how I'm thinking through it:

Step 1) I read "Interest rates on mortgages have declined steadily during the first six months of this year"

So far looks ok. I take a quick look at the answer choices and see that they are testing me on "have declined" Vs "declined steadily" VS "steadily declined"

Well, (A) shows "have declined during the first six months"--this implies that this declining started in the beginning of the year (in the past) and continues to the present--which presumably would be now in month #6.

So looks ok so far.

Step 2) Then we keep reading: "but virtually remained unchanged during the next three months."

"During the next three months" ???---wait a minute. It's using a past tense "remained unchanged" when referencing something that happens for the next three months. Since we assumed the present was now in month #6, then the next three months would be month #7-9.

But they used past tense "remained unchanged" when referencing something that was really in the future (relative to month #6).

Something must be wrong!

If they're going to word it like this--you're going to need to get rid of the "have" in "have declined"--because this is conflicting with other clues in the sentence.

Step 3) "declined steadily" VS "steadily declined"
Well, one's not that much better than the other..so let's keep looking for other clues. We know we are now operating in the past tense since all remaining answer choices are in the past tense.

Step 4) "remain virtually unchanged" Vs "have remained virtually unchanged" when referencing the "next 3 months"

Since we know we are in the past tense--we cannot use "remain virtually unchanged"--this is actually present tense. The "-ed" in the word "unchanged" might lead some to believe that it's past tense--but actually "unchanged" is used as an adjective---not a verb.

So we need to eliminate "remain virtually unchanged" as well as "virtually remain unchanged" in (B) and (C).

Step 5) Now it's between (D) and (E).

"remained virtually unchanging" or "remained virtually unchanged"

This is an easy one. Clearly (D) doesn't make sense--only (E) makes sense.

So choose (E) as your final answer and move on!

Hope that helps!

(E) declined steadily during the first six months of this year but have remained virtually unchanged.....

present perfect tense is use for up to now but how could be true ! confusing question
if both happen in the past why we must use p.p ?

Can anyone explain the exact meaning difference

declined steadily VS steadily declined

Hello experts,

In option E, " declined steadily" is mentioned. Isn't that incorrect? shouldn't it be "steadily declined" ? because of this reasoning I was confused between C & E, but picked E because it had the right tense.

Bunuel @chetanu

Hello Blair15,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, although "adverb + verb" is the preferred construction, "verb + adverb" is also acceptable.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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