The British colonies in North America attracted a mass immigration of religious dissenters and poor people throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, coming from all parts of the British Isles, Germany, the Netherlands, and other countries.
The sentence presents a situation that happened in the past. So the main verb must be in the simple past form since a general information is given in the sentence. Thus, only option ‘A’ satisfies the condition and is the right answer.
A. The British colonies in North America attracted a mass immigration of religious dissenters and poor people throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, coming – CORRECT. The main verb ‘attract’ is correctly used in its simple past form ‘attracted’. Verb-ing modifier also used properly to modify preceding clause.
B. The British colonies in North America have attracted a mass immigration of religious dissenters and poor people throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, coming – WRONG. ‘Have attracted’ changes the meaning as if the action is still going on which is non sensical since action happened in the 17th and 18th centuries. Though ‘Verb-ing’ modifier also used properly to modify preceding clause.
C. The British colonies in North America has attracted a mass immigration of religious dissenters and poor people throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, coming – WRONG. S-V number disagreement error. Though ‘Verb-ing’ modifier used properly to modify preceding clause.
D. The British colonies in North America was attracting a mass immigration of religious dissenters and poor people throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, coming – WRONG. S-V number disagreement error. Though ‘Verb-ing’ modifier used properly to modify preceding clause.
E. The British colonies in North America have attracted a mass immigration of religious dissenters and poor people throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, to come – WRONG. There is no other action that is mentioned in the sentence thus ‘past perfect tense’ usage is wrong. Also using infinitive ‘to come’ to modify previous clause is wrong since sentence doesn’t make sense.
Answer (A).