Ever since the concussion risks associated with playing tackle

Official Explanation

(A) The past tense were illogically implies that tennis and soccer used to be, but no longer are, less dangerous than football.

(B) CORRECT. The present perfect have elected matches the time marker ever since. Sign their children up and sign up their children are both correct idioms; that split is a red herring. This choice also removes the past-tense verb were found in the original sentence; the wording less dangerous sports correctly indicates that soccer and tennis were and still are less dangerous than tackle football. The word including appears to introduce a comma –ing structure, but comma-including is an exception to the usual rule. This construction is used to introduce examples of the item mentioned before the comma (in this case, sports).

(C) The time marker ever since requires the present perfect tense have elected in order to indicate that parents began enrolling their children in less dangerous sports in the past and continue to do so today. It is incorrect to say ever since something happened, people did something else.

(D) The past tense were illogically implies that tennis and soccer used to be, but no longer are, less dangerous than football.

(E) The time marker ever since requires the present perfect tense have elected in order to indicate that parents began enrolling their children in less dangerous sports in the past and continue to do so today. It is incorrect to say ever since something happened, people did something else.

Ever since the concussion risks associated with playing tackle football became more widely known, many parents have elected to sign their children up for sports that were less dangerous, such as soccer or tennis.

A) became more widely known, many parents have elected to sign their children up for sports that were less dangerous, such as - "sports that were less dangerous" is incorrect as the fact should still be true since parents began to enroll their kids in tennis and soccer in the past and are still continuing to do so today

B) became more widely known, many parents have elected to sign up their children for less dangerous sports, including - Correct

C) have become more widely known, many parents elected to sign their children up for less dangerous sports, such as - tense issue- present perfect tense needed for "many parents elected"

D) have become more widely known, many parents have elected to sign their children up for sports that were less dangerous, including - same issue with that modifies as in A

E) have become more widely known, many parents elected to sign up their children for less dangerous sports, such as - tense issue- present perfect tense needed for "many parents elected"

Answer B


As per the OE posted above, either present perfect tense or simple past tense is acceptable in the first part of the sentence(Ever since ... widely known), but in opinion, the first part should be in simple past.


AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasPrepBrian , MartyMurray , DmitryFarber , daagh , generis , other experts - please enlighten
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Though I marked D, the problem with D is that numerous words inserted between sports and including.
...sports that were less dangerous, including.....
When you to present the list or examples, you must keep them attached to what they are referring.
Here sport, including or sports, such as.. is correct.
But after correcting other errors, B is perfect in all senses.

Your point is interesting. In some cases, it may make sense to use the present perfect in a clause that begins with "since." For instance, one could potentially argue that the following makes sense.

Since James has been working here, the team has been having much more fun.

I personally am not sure that I like it, but I'm sure that many people, including many English experts, would say that it is OK, as it conveys that ever since an ongoing action started, something else has been going on.

However, the following does not make sense.

Ever since the concussion risks of football have become more widely known, parents have elected to sign their children up for less dangerous sports.

The process of the risks becoming more widely known is not the same as "James has been working here." If James has been working somewhere, he started at a certain point and has been working ever since. The concussion risks becoming more widely known is not a binary change like James not working and then working. It's an ongoing change. It does not make sense to say "Since" an ongoing change. For instance, the following is not optimal.

Ever since it has become increasingly apparent that oil company executives don't care about the environment, local organizations have been forming to protect water supplies.

We would be better off with the following.

As it has become increasingly apparent that oil company executives don't care about the environment, local organizations have been forming to protect water supplies.

Let's use "as" in the concussions sentence.

As the concussion risks of football have become more widely known, parents have elected to sign their children up for less dangerous sports.

That's better, but the second clause does not quite match the first. It might be even better if we show that the parents part is an ongoing change as well.

As the concussion risks of football have become more widely known, the percentage of parents electing to sign their children up for less dangerous sports has increased.

So, the answer seems to be that, while in certain cases it may make sense to use the present perfect in a clause that begins with "since," for the purposes of describing the type of scenario described by the sentence in this question, it probably does not make sense to use the present perfect after "ever since," and it would be better to use "as" than to use "since."
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Is this question from the Manhattan Review Company or the Manhattan Prep Company?
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B is the correct answer
present perfect = has/have + past participle[ed] is correctly used


Kudos please

daagh

Manhattan prep.. Appeared in the MGMAT exam for me

I find "Including A or B " weird. So it means that the less dangerous sports either includes soccer, or tennis? Didn't that use change the sentence meaning?

Yunbao

True. After using the plural verb ' sports that were" it is inconceivable that we can use the singular soccer or tennis.

Reg tense:

However, let us come to the core: The relevant question is whether the knowledge about the concussion risks in tackle football came to be aware at one particular point and whether that knowledge is continuing to be learnt even today. I do not think that knowledge is still ongoing to make it imperative to use a present perfect. A past tense 'became' is definitely is better in the context. That is the reason, one can dump C,D,and E once for all.

However, there is no problem with regard to 'have elected', as even today parents prefer either soccer or tennis.

In addition, 'sports that were' is also a tense error. After all, all these sports are even today are less dangerous. We must use a simple present tense 'are' for describing the extant nature of these sports.
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By the way, the fact that the use of a choice changes the sentence's meaning is basically irrelevant. The task in answering a Sentence Correction question is to find the choice that does the best job of expressing a logical meaning. Therefore, the fact that the use of a choice changes the sentence's meaning may be a reason why that choice is correct.

So, yes, I get what you were basically getting at. At the same time, the characteristic to focus on is not the degree to which the meaning conveyed resembles some theoretical "intended meaning" but, rather, the degree to which the meaning conveyed makes sense.

In this case, of course, what you have caught is that the meaning conveyed by the official answer to this question does not make sense. This question is therefore flawed.
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Shouldn't including is used with an "AND" Including X and Y

Ever since the concussion risks associated with playing tackle football became more widely known, many parents have elected to sign their children up for sports that were less dangerous, such as soccer or tennis.


A) became more widely known, many parents have elected to sign their children up for sports that were less dangerous, such as

B) became more widely known, many parents have elected to sign up their children for less dangerous sports, including

C) have become more widely known, many parents elected to sign their children up for less dangerous sports, such as

D) have become more widely known, many parents have elected to sign their children up for sports that were less dangerous, including

E) have become more widely known, many parents elected to sign up their children for less dangerous sports, such as

A. Because 'ever since' is present in the first part of the sentence, usage of present perfect tense 'have' is essential. The structure is ever since something happened in the past, many parents have elected... soccer and tennis are still less dangerous than tackle football so use of past tense 'were' is incorrect.

B. correct answer. It correctly uses present perfect tense, gets rid of the past tense 'were' and uses including to denote a list.

C. past perfect tense 'have elected' should be used instead of simple past 'elected'.

D. incorrect use of past tense 'were' as stated in A.

E. same error as C.
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What difference does it make to use "became" and have "become".

B is the perfect choice except for the "including". Including does not sound right.

Since when "have elected" is past perfect tense.
its present perfect, for past perfect it should be " had elected"

(1) Take a First Glance (5 seconds)
The became vs. have become split indicates that this question may be testing Verbs. Look for time markers that indicate the correct tense.
 
(2) Read for Meaning
The core sentence reads: Ever since the risks became known, parents have elected to … . Became and have become are both acceptable in this sentence—either one can logically describe when the continuing time period indicated by ever since began. For example, ever since she has been working out… and ever since she started working out… are both valid constructions.
The verb that follows the comma, however, needs to be in the present perfect tense. The time marker ever since requires the present perfect tense have elected in order to indicate that the parents began to enroll their kids in tennis and soccer in the past and are still continuing to do so today. You’re locked into ever since, so eliminate any answers that use the simple past elected.
The original sentence says sports that were less dangerous. The past tense were illogically implies that tennis and soccer used to be, but no longer are, less dangerous than football. If these sports were now as dangerous as football, then it wouldn’t make sense for the sentence to say that parents continue to choose them instead of football. Eliminate answer choice (A) and any others that repeat this mistake.
 
(3) Find a Starting Point
Start with any difference that seems easiest to you, then move to the next easiest issue, and so on. Stop when you have one answer or you aren’t sure how to address the remaining differences. All errors for each choice are detailed in the next section.
 
(4) Eliminate (and Repeat)
(A) The past tense were illogically implies that tennis and soccer used to be, but no longer are, less dangerous than football.
(B) CORRECT. The present perfect have elected matches the time marker ever since. Sign their children up and sign up their children are both correct idioms; that split is a red herring. This choice also removes the past-tense verb were found in the original sentence; the wording less dangerous sports correctly indicates that soccer and tennis were and still are less dangerous than tackle football. The word including appears to introduce a comma –ing structure, but comma-including is an exception to the usual rule. This construction is used to introduce examples of the item mentioned before the comma (in this case, sports).
(C) The time marker ever since requires the present perfect tense have elected in order to indicate that parents began enrolling their children in less dangerous sports in the past and continue to do so today. It is incorrect to say ever since something happened, people did something else.
(D) The past tense were illogically implies that tennis and soccer used to be, but no longer are, less dangerous than football.
(E) The time marker ever since requires the present perfect tense have elected in order to indicate that parents began enrolling their children in less dangerous sports in the past and continue to do so today. It is incorrect to say ever since something happened, people did something else.

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