Ten months after credit markets had frozen and had deepened the recess

Question

Ten months  after credit markets had frozen and had  deepened the recession, many companies, while still hurting, are seeing signs of bottom and are growing cautiously optimistic about an uptick by year's end.

A. after credit markets had frozen and had
B. after credit markets has frozen and 
C. after credit markets have frozen and 
D. later credit markets froze and
E. after credit markets froze and

Tapesh03 · Answer

IMO - E
Reason I think - Ten months after is a time indicator and thus we don't need past participle and regular past tense makes sense.
A - As mentioned, usage is had is unnecessary 
B - though the phrase "while still hurting" is justifying the usage of prefect perfect, however, I think present perfect need to have for or since with a time indicator, which is missing here and thus it's not correct. please correct if I am wrong. SV Agreement issue as well.
C - Same reasoning as for B, except SV Agreement, which is correct here.
D - Ten months later doesn't sound appropriate; not sure if later can be used to time

WINGZER0 · Answer

B, C and D are out because of has,have and later.

Between A and E,

A implies that "Credit card market had frozen the recession and Credit card market had deepened the recession". 
Credit card market cannot freeze the depression but it can deepen the recession. 
For this reason A is out.

E implies "Credit card market froze and Credit card market deepended the recession". 
Here "froze" is verbed modifier modifying credit card market but deepended is an action performed by the credit card market. Modifier cannot be parallel to a verb. 
For this reason E is out. 
 
I'm confused with this question. Not sure if the answers were framed correctly.

GMATNinja

strepanier · Answer

This question has a a verb tense error- "had frozen and had deepened" are related in the past perfect tense- the simple past tense is needed here per the meaning of the sentence- the events occurred at the same time in the past-therefore requiring simple past to convey proper meaning.

A. incorrect as noted above

B and C incorrect as now we have present perfect which is not needed-

D. the use of "later" distorts the meaning

E. correct as the verb is presented in simple past tense per the intended meaning of the sentence

WINGZER0 · Answer

i'm not able comprehend the meaning of the question properly. It would be great if an expert can help out.

arvind910619 · Answer

Interesting question on tense and redundancy. 
Let us tackle this one.

Per the original sentence we see that the effects of market stuck are still felt. So a perfect tense is correct. We can still the this effect happening, so present perfect tense should have come in the original sentence.

Before we jump on to the answers we also have  "10 months before"  in the original sentence, so a perfect would not make much sense if the a definite time marker is there for sequencing of events.

A is out per the reasoning above.
B Markets is a plural noun, so a have should come.
C Out redundant. There should be a "have" before deepened.
D later is not correct. Meaning issue 
E Correct. Redundancy is removed and the meaning is clear.

Pritishd · Answer

GMATNinja  - Can you tell me were I am going wrong?

Subject is recession (singular) and hence the use of 'has' in B is correct. The effects still exists as conveyed by 'while still hurting' and hence present perfect tense is required. B satisfies both the points and should be correct choice IMO.

aniket2045 · Answer

egmat  - is it ok to change tense between subordinate and main clause.

riagarg07 · Answer

.

Helen123 · Answer

GMATNinja 
 Please help understand this question

Ranasaymon · Answer

Let me explain. First, we need to understand the sequence of events. 1.Ten months ago, credit markets had frozen and had deepened recession... 2.Ten months after many companies are seeing signs and are getting optimistic.. Error Analysis: We can't use past perfect tense if there are no sequence of related events in past. If ant, we will use past perfect tense for earlier event and simple past for later events. Solution: A s the sequence tells that the later event is in present form, then the earlier events must be in simple past form. Options D and E properly use simple past form for earlier event. Between ten years later and ten years after, ten years after is more clear and idiomatic than the previous one. So, the correct answer is E

AliciaSierra · Answer

I am not able to understand why option C is wrong.

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

The tense of "have frozen ... and deepened" doesn't make sense in this context.

"After" indicates that "have frozen ... and deepened" is completely in the past. On the other hand, the present perfect tense of "have frozen ... and deepened" indicates that those events are still ongoing in the present or are connected to the present.

So, "after" and the present perfect tense verbs communicate conflicting meanings.

Jarvis07 · Answer

The correct answer is E. after credit markets froze and.

The sentence is in the past perfect tense, which is used to describe an event that happened before another event in the past. In this case, the first event is the freezing of the credit markets, and the second event is the deepening of the recession. The past perfect tense uses the past participle of the verb, which in this case is "frozen". The past participle is formed by adding "-ed" to the verb stem.

The other answer choices are incorrect because they use the wrong verb tense. Option A uses the past perfect tense for the first event, but the past simple tense for the second event. Option B uses the present perfect tense for the first event, but the past perfect tense for the second event. Option C uses the past perfect tense for both events, but the verb form is incorrect. Option D uses the simple past tense for both events.

Praful_0810 · Answer

Ten months  after credit markets had frozen and had  deepened the recession, many companies, while still hurting, are seeing signs of bottom and are growing cautiously optimistic about an uptick by year's end.

Understanding the meaning of the sentence is very crucial in this question. The sentence imply that there were series of event which are connected. First" Credit market frozen and deepened the recession" and Second its effects could be seen after ten months : many companies are seeing signs of bottom and are growing cautiously.

A. after credit markets had frozen and had =   Wrong  : as part participle (Had) normally uses for series of even. Though in this sentence two events are mentioned but the later non underline portion is in present continuous tense. Hence Tense error.
B. after credit markets has frozen and =   Wrong  : as "after" and "present participle tense" create confusion. Moreover has is wrongly used with Plural noun "Credit Markets"
C. after credit markets have frozen and =   Wrong  : as "after" and "present participle tense" create confusion
D. later credit markets froze and =   Wrong  : As it distort the meaning
E. after credit markets froze and =   Correct  : simple past tense is used.

Ten months after credit markets had frozen and had deepened the recess

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Ten months after credit markets had frozen and had deepened the recess

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