egmat wrote:
Hi,
@marus: This sentence needs careful reading. Read the portion “by the time tickets go on sale.” This suggests a future action. We know that the tickets are not up for sale yet. They will be sold some time in the future.
This understanding helps us in eliminating choice E as it is written in the present perfect tense and hence leads to inconsistency in tense in the sentence.
With
choice E, the sentence reads: The fanatical, young group of girls has been waiting in the concert line the whole night by the time the tickets go on sale.
The present perfect tense “has been waiting” denotes an action that has already begun in some time in the past and is continuing in the present as well. It renders the sense that the group of girls has already begun to wait in the line for the tickets which will be sold sometime in the future. This is not the logical intended meaning of the sentence.
The logical intended meaning of the sentence is that By the time the tickets will be up for sale, these girls will have been waiting in the line already.
Take this example: By the time Joe appears for the exam, he will have been completely prepared. The sense of the sentence is that by the time Joe will appear for the exam, he will be completely prepared.
However, we do not if he is completely prepared in the present or not. The sentence says nothing about the present. It talks about a situation that is yet to happen.
We cannot say: By the time Joe appears for the exam, he has been completely prepared. “has been prepared” suggests that Joe is already prepared in the present and it does not relate to the event that will take place in the future, i. e. appearing for the exam.
In the very same way, the original sentence is also talking about a situation that is yet to happen. Hence we must use future tense to correspond the related event with that future event only. Again, understanding the intended logical meaning of the sentence is the key here to use the correct verb tense knowledge.
Choice C correctly conveys the logical intended meaning of the sentence: The fanatical, young group of girls will have been waiting in the concert line the entire night by the time the tickets go on sale. This choice clearly says that by the time the tickets will be up for sale, the girls will already be standing in the line from the previous night.
Say for example if the tickets will be sold on February 3, the girls will already have been standing in the line from the night of February 2.
Hope this helps.
Shraddha
great explanation. but permit me to post more
future perfect is explained in the book "advanced grammar in use ". this tense is used to show an action which is finished before a point of time in FUTURE OR PRESENT. . this mean it can show an action happen in the past.
by now, he will have finished the gmat test and will have become a Havard student.
by tomorow, he will have finished the gmat test.
we can not say that " by the time the ticket go on sale" show a future time. it can show a present or future time.
by now, the time at which the tickets go on sale, he will have waited for 3 hours.
"by the time ticket go on sale " whether it show present or future point of time, can be fit with "will have done" and choice C is good.
but how to eliminate choice E.
present perfect shows an action which continue until present or finished at a past point of time but its times frame or its context continue until present.
if "by the time ticket go on sale " is future point of time, present perfect dose not fit.
if "by the time ticket go on sale" is present point of time, present perfect still dose not fit because
"by+time marker" implies that context and action finished before present . THIS IS KEY POINT to explain why by+time marker can go with future perfect and past perfect but not with present perfect.
so, present perfect showing action continued until present or action's context continued until present dose not fit with by+time marker.
by+time marker can normally go with past perfect, if the phrase show past point of time or go will future perfect , if the phrase show present or future time and the phrase never go with present perfect.
the idiom to remember is " by+time maker " never go with present perfect but with past perfect or future perfect. rather easy to remember.
if present perfect show an action finished in the past, no time maker is used. if present perfect show an action which continue until present, "since" is used
I have passed gmat.
we never say
I have passed gmat by now.
I wish everybody talk more on why choice e is wrong while "by the time tickets go on sale" shows present point of time.
thank you
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09 Mar 2019, 14:56
