During an era when interracial tensions in the United States have run

Question

During an era when interracial tensions in the United States  have run high , Rosa Parks became a quiet, unassuming symbol of the continued struggle for human dignity.

(A) have run high
(B) ran high
(C) had run highly
(D) run high
(E) were running highly

daagh · Answer

D for using the correct past tense for something that happened in a bygone era and for avoiding the ugly usage 'highly' in the given context.

namanshukla · Answer

The two actions (interracial tensions and Rosa’s becoming a symbol) are not happening in different time frames. Thus, use of ‘had’ (past perfect tense) is not correct. Therefore, C can be eliminated.
D can be eliminated for the use of simple present tense.
C and E are awkward in the use of ‘highly’.
B, aptly and concisely using the simple past tense, is the best choice.

mykrasovski · Answer

The non-underlined part of the sentence includes "Rosa Parks became...". The verb became is in a Past Simple form. So, we would like to make verb tenses parallel because there is no need to use Past Perfect or any other "fancy" tense. So, the Past Simple form of the verb run is ran.

The answer is (B).

The answer is (B).

krndatta · Answer

EducationAisle

Option E can be eliminated on the basis of "highly" alone? 
Or is there any other error in option E?

Please elaborate.

EducationAisle · Answer

Frankly, this is more about idiomatic usage:  tensions ran high  is the correct idiomatic usage.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  krndatta ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the use of "highly" is enough to eliminate Option E; "tensions" and "emotions" are said to "run high"; "run highly" is not an acceptable construction.

One additional flaw is that Option E redundantly uses the simple past continuous verb "were running" alongside the phrase "During an era..."; this usage is redundant because the use of "During" conveys a sense of continuity over time.

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

shalkash · Answer

Isn't the era is more past than Rosa, so the older event need to use past perfect..option C?

During an era when interracial tensions in the United States have run

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During an era when interracial tensions in the United States have run

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