Mavisdu1017 wrote:
Hello expert,
I saw many say present perfect in E is wrong, cuz the passage uses simple past “culminated”. But I have a doubt: could it be “has begun...and (has) culminated...”?
Pls help. Much thanks.
You're right that the "has" could be implied for the second verb, but the construction wouldn't work because of the logic of the timing of the actions.
If I write, "The game has begun," it implies that the game is still happening right now.
If I write, "The game has culminated," it means the game is over.
(To be fair, the present perfect can be a little bit confusing, and involves some grey area at times. In many cases, we can argue that the action is still going on in the present, but in other cases, it seems as though the action began in the past but has concluded. For example, if I write, "Tim has been shoveling the driveway for hours and his back is killing him," Tim is still shoveling. But if I write "Tim has shoveled the driveway and is now relaxing with a Miller High Life and a deep-fried Twinkie," he already finished a job that he started in the past. We have to use context to figure out what the verb tense is actually doing.)
All to say: we can't use both "has begun" and "has culminated" to refer to the same career. The first tells us the career is still happening, the second that the career is over. It has to be one or the other, right?
For more on GMAT verb tenses, check out
this sprawling old video or
this shorter one.
I hope that clears things up!
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