Announcing that one of its key successes had been the recent

Question

Announcing that one of   its key successes had been the recent   well-received beta launch, the Internet startup claimed it would introduce several new products to the web community during the next quarter.

(A) its key successes had been the recent
(B) its key successes has been the recently
(C) its key successes is the recently
(D) their key successes is the recent
(E) their key successes had been the recent

D and E are out for using plural "their"
Between A, B, and C;

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

hirendhanak: I am assuming that you are also looking for the difference between A, B and C.

The key point here is that we will use past perfect in this sentence: one of its key successes had been  not has been or is . 
The reason is that 'beta launch is an event that took place and was a success before the Internet start up announced it'. The verb 'claimed' shows you that it happened in the past, hence an event further in the past will need to use past perfect.
To review, we use past perfect tense when 2 events take place in the past but one takes place before the other. Here, beta launch became a success before the company claimed it would introduce several new products. So it uses past perfect.

'recent well-received beta launch' is correct. Here recent and well-received form a pair of cumulative adjectives.

There are two types of adjectives: Cumulative and Co-ordinate

Cumulative adjectives - An adjective is “cumulative” when it occurs in a pair or series with other adjectives of different descriptive categories, the adjectives building upon each other and together modifying the noun.
e.g. a big old shaggy dog
big - size
old - age
shaggy - quality

Co-ordinate adjectives - An adjective used in a pair or series with other adjectives within its own descriptive category to describe the same noun. Coordinate adjectives are separated by commas.

I am always impressed by your honest, insightful remarks.

honest - quality
insightful - quality

tgt2012 · Answer

Announcing that one of its key successes had been the recent well-received beta launch, the Internet startup claimed it would introduce several new products to the web community during the next quarter.

Again this is a question for tenses

Key points:
1. Activity in past + would
2. Activity in present + will

There is "would" in second clause in the sentence given
So there should be past tense in first clause
Thus B,C and D are out.

Now "Internet startup" is singular so there should be "its" and not "their"

So A

geturdream · Answer

RECENT vs RECENTLY

here recent is modifying the noun beta-launch (when was the launch-- ans: recent). Recently is an adverb which should modify an adjective. RECENT is correct.
So A is correct

what if we had the sentence like  its key successes has been the recent 
IS that correct..

All i am trying to say is it wrong to use present perfect here

hemanthp · Answer

Geturdream, a point of contention.

In this phrase - recent well-received beta launch. RECENT is modifying the noun "beta launch" but it is placed next to the adjective "well-received" and since RECENT is an adjective this is improper usage (adjectives cannot modify adjectives). As a matter of fact then RECENTLY is more appropriate.

I looked up the dictionary and the term WELL-RECEIVED is an adjective.

If that is the case the adverb usage RECENTLY is proper usage. As adverbs can modify adjectives. So what exactly does "RECENT" modify? It is far placed from the noun (BETA LAUNCH) it is supposed to be modifying. Is it allowed that 2 adjectives can modify the same noun? Any expert comments?

seekmba · Answer

I picked B too. But I agree with Eden's reasoning. Should be C.

(1) The sentence is written in past tense. "The company claimed it would introduce" which requires past perfect..."had been"

(2) "recently well received" makes no sense...."recently" is modifying "well received beta launch" (noun)...which is incorrect as adverbs cannot modify nouns...SC experts can comment on this.

garimavyas · Answer

Announcing that one of  its key successes had been the recent  well-received beta launch, the Internet start-up claimed it would introduce several new products to the web community during the next quarter.

A: its key successes had been the recent
B: its key successes has been the recently
C: its key successes is the recently
D: their key successes is the recent
E: their key successes had been the recent

between past perfect and present perfect , what should be preferred here ?

garimavyas · Answer

the OA is A . It is between recent (adjective) and recently ( adverb) , and an adverb CAN NOT be used to modify a noun , therefore the answer is A. I too was confused between A and B .

the second issue with the question is present perfect v/s past perfect, can anyone try and clarify that part ?

Onell · Answer

Can some one explain why do we need coordinating adjective here ?

contacttoakhil · Answer

1. The starup claimed after announcing so sentence should be in past perfect.
2. The adjective recent should be used here and not the adverb recently. Check the difference:

recent well-received
recently launched

So correct answer is A.

krishp84 · Answer

Well this answer would have been (A)

even if we had this choice :
its key successes had been the recently

Adjective can modify Noun
Adverb can modify Verb

Here  well-received beta launch  is a NOUN and not VERB, so you have to go with adjective :RECENT and not adverb : REECENTLY

Coming to the use of HAD BEEN, it is parallelism....
HAD BEEN is parallel to WOULD, so this would narrow down the choices to A, E...After that ITS is the correct usage so go for A...

Cheers !!!

rojans · Answer

IT's clearly A.It is copy cat of a OG question.
A- clearly describe the sequence of events by using past perfect and simple past( it is correct too for singular noun).because successes happened is later past and claimed is happened after that .
B- need past perfect
C- ditto B
D-tense issue remain
E- pronoun agreement is issue here.

gmatopoeia · Answer

Answer: A
'recent' vs 'recently' - 'recently' is usually used to provide further information about an action.

e.g. "I  bumped  into Clifford  recently ", "The neighbors  argued  over the noise level  recently ". 
It is commonly found at the beginning or the ending of a clause. E.g. "Recently, Jane met up with Jim" which can also be rewritten as "Jane met up with Jim recently". 'Recently' is further information pertaining to the meet-up.

'recent' is used when describing an event/incident. 
E.g. 'The recent launch', 'The recent bird flu break-out', 'The recent news about the idiots who kayaked despite the Hurricane warning..."

Since we are talking about an event 'the launch' in this question, it should be 'recent' and not 'recently'. The other clue is that 'recent/recently' is found in the middle of the clause, thus the chances of 'recent' being correct is greater than 'recently'.

gaurav2k101 · Answer

Announcing that one of  its key successes had been the recent  well-received beta launch, the Internet start-up claimed it would introduce several new products to the web community during the next quarter.

(A) its key successes had been the recent
(B) its key successes has been the recently
(C) its key successes is the recently
(D) their key successes is the recent
(E) their key successes had been the recent

gautammalik · Answer

OA should be A

Splits
1) recent vs. recently
"recent" is an adjective and "recently" is an adverb"
Since question stem contains "recent", we should stick to it. So, we can eliminate (B) and (C)

2) its vs their
since "Internet start-up " is singular, we should use "its". So, (D) and (E) can be eliminated.

We are left with A.

jeprince112 · Answer

great reasoning and answers! thank you

Zarrolou · Answer

I cannot tell you why "had been" is better than "has been" in this case, but "recently" is wrong because it is referred to the beta launch
A its key successes had been the recent  (...)beta launch  CORRECT
B its key successes has been the recently  (...)beta launch

C its key successes is the recently
The next sentence uses the past "the Internet startup claimed", and "recently" is wrong

"the Internet startup" is singular, their is wrong
D  their  key successes is the recent
E  their  key successes had been the recent

Archit143 · Answer

D and E are out because of pronoun ambiguity.
Now we need to focus on meaning. because the company has been successful in its last product so it wants to launch another product.
Hence, past perfect must be used....and A makes sense

A it is!!

Consider Kudos if my post helps!!

Archit

egmat · Answer

Hi Ratnakar,

Announcing that one of its key successes had been the recent well-received beta launch, the Internet startup claimed it would introduce several new products to the web community during the next quarter.

Since the meaning is relatively simple to understand, let’s move to Error Analysis:

1. Let’s put all the action in this sentence on a timeline as they happened:
i. The Internet startup launched beta trial.
ii. It was received well.
iii. The startup made the claims.
iv. It would introduce many new products.
So, we see that launching the beta trial was the very first action that the Internet startup company did among all the events. Hence, it has been correctly written in past perfect tense.

2. The second thing to understand here is the usage of the word “recent”. This word is an adjective that can refer to a noun or another adjective. Let’s take an example and explain:

Currently the date is March 25.
Picture that the Internet startup launched one beta trial on February 15 and it launched another beta trial on March 15. So out of the two, the beta trial which was launched on Mar 15 is recent.

If we change “recent” into “recently”, this adverb will modify the adjective “well-received”. This means that the beta launch was well-received in the near past. Use of “recently” changes the intended meaning of the sentence. So use of “recent” is correct here as it is meant to modify “beta-launch” and not “well-received”.

PoE:

A. its key successes had been the recent: Correct for the reasons above.

B. its key successes has been the recently: Incorrect.
i. Use of present perfect tense is incorrect because this is the oldest activity in the sentence and must be written in past perfect tense.
ii. Use of recently is incorrectly.

C. its key successes is the recently: Incorrect. Repeats both the errors of Choice B.

D. their key successes is the recent: Incorrect.
i. Plural pronoun “they” does not agree in number with its singular antecedent “Internet startup”.
ii. Repeats the verb tense error of Choice C.

E their key successes had been the recent: Incorrect. Repeats the pronoun error of Choice D.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.
Shraddha

Thanks. Shraddha

aquarius24 · Answer

Announcing that one of its key successes had been the recent well-received beta launch, the Internet startup claimed it would introduce several new products to the web community during the next quarter.

Again this is a question for tenses

Key points:
1. Activity in past + would
2. Activity in present + will

There is "would" in second clause in the sentence given
So there should be past tense in first clause
Thus B,C and D are out.

Now "Internet startup" is singular so there should be "its" and not "their"

So A

Announcing that one of its key successes had been the recent

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Announcing that one of its key successes had been the recent

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