Thomas Edison invented the first electric light bulb causing

Hey guys,

Good question, so before it falls off the bottom of the page let me throw my hat in the ring behind choice C, as well.

This one is a classic logical timeline question (usually those are pure verb tense, but other elements apply). In B (and E), for example, saying that "a major recession happened when Edison invented..." makes it seem as though those were simultaneous events, and not a cause-and-effect, logical timeline.

C avoids this by using the modifiers " , causing a major recession", so that the action of invention is what (eventually) causes the recession - it wasn't a simultaneous event.


Often times when questions involve multiple verb tenses, modifiers that use time (like "in 1878,") or the word "when", it's helpful to draw up a logical timeline in your mind so that you can eliminate choices that violate it.

Dear brian
please throw some light why D is incorrect....

In the option C, doesn't it look like the bulb has caused the recession.

Main Clause in the Passive voice.

To reject wrong choices, we should also keep in mind that right answer should also give you the meaning that "it was not the first bulb only but the 'act of invention of bulb' that caused the recessions in Oil Industry"

My Chose C

Brian/ Instructors,

while the answer is C beyond doubt for various reasons and i had the timeline (like 1978 and invention caused recession) in mind while working on this sc , i cant seem to come to terms with Brian's explanation for striking off B and E

agree that "a major recession happened when Edison invented..." makes it seem as though those were simultaneous events ,

but B actually states a recession was CAUSED when the bulb was invented ( does'nt the use of caused suggest one caused the other? )
similarly in E when Edison invented the bulb, it (invention) created a recession.

Again i know gramatically these sentences have mistakes and can be knocked off, but im more eager to know how these two sentences portray the 2 events to be simultaneous events so that i can analyze how i am being deceived by the wordings in these sentences or where im faltering.

can somebody help!!

00:12

Picked B but later realised that C is better. thx for explaining guys.

A - Incorrect - placement of 1n 1878 is incorrect
B - "A major recession on 1878" is incorrect
C - Correct
D - "was invented on 1878" is incorrect
E - "it created a major recession" ; "it" is ambiguous