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