The agriculturist appears confident that her study will show that

Hey All,

I was asked by private message to answer this one. What fun! I should add that I don't think this difference is realistic. It's more subtle than any other question I've seen, and I think you could make a case for both C and E (though I prefer E).

The agriculturist appears confident that her study will show that several crops that were damaged during last year's drought failed to produce sizable yields this year.

A.several crops that were damaged during last year's drought failed
PROBLEM: The damage happened before the failure, so we need two different tenses.

B.several crops that were damaged during last year's drought fail
PROBLEM: We should notice the verb tense split right away, and this present tense verb doesn't work. The main verb of the sentence is "appears", which is present. But the crops failed BEFORE the agriculturist appeared confident, so we need a tense that involves the past.

C.several crops that were damaged during last year's drought have failed
ANSWER: The present perfect tense confuses things here. The damaging happened before the failure, but the present perfect tense implies that the action continues into the present. There's no real reason why this action needs to continue in the present. A lot of people have cited Kaplan (recent past = present perfect), but you have to understand that this isn't a recent past. The use of the future tense "will show" implies that by the time the report has been written, the failure of the crops will be DONE (i.e. not the recent past). It's that use of the future that makes this highly confusing.

D.several crops that had been damaged during last year's drought fail
PROBLEM: You can only use the past perfect (had been damaged) when you already have a past tense verb in the sentence. We don't here.

E.several crops that had been damaged during last year's drought failed
PROBLEM: Perfect. Two past tense actions, one happening before the last, and both of them happening before the present tense "appears" action.

Hope that helps!

-t