A growing number of mature readers had been turning to young adult fic

Question

A growing number of mature readers  had been turning to young adult fiction, bringing booksellers a welcome source  of revenue.

(A) had been turning to young adult fiction, bringing booksellers a welcome source

(B) have been turning to young adult fiction, bringing booksellers a welcome source

(C) had been turning to young adult fiction, which brings booksellers welcome sources

(D) have been turning to young adult fiction, which brought booksellers welcome sources

(E) had been turning to young adult fiction and bringing to booksellers a welcome source

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Pragadeesh48 · Answer

(A)    had been turning    to young adult fiction, bringing booksellers a welcome source -  Present perfect continuous intended. 
(B) have been turning to young adult fiction, bringing booksellers a welcome source -  CORRECT

(C)    had been turning    to young adult fiction,    which    brings booksellers welcome sources -  which modifies adult fiction, Adult fiction doesn't bring revenue by itself.

(D) have been turning to young adult fiction,    which     brought    booksellers welcome sources - Same as C

(E)    had been turning    to young adult fiction and bringing to booksellers a welcome source - Same as A

The Answer is Option B.

Correct me if i am wrong!

zhanbo · Answer

My answer is  (B) . It took me 55 seconds.

Past perfect tense cannot be used with a clear past event. (ADE) are eliminated. We are left with option (B) and (D).

(B) have been turning to young adult fiction, bringing booksellers a welcome source
(D) have been turning to young adult fiction, which brought booksellers welcome sources

Typically, we eliminate (D) by saying that "which" refers to "young adult fiction". While it changes the meaning from that of (B), we can probably accept such statement that "young adult fiction helps bring booksellers a welcome source of revenue".
That said, the use of simple past tense in the relative clause is uncalled for, eliminating (D).

Mavisdu1017 · Answer

Torn with A and B. Does “growing number of...” pair with singular verb “has”?

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation

The underlined portion of the sentence uses the past perfect tense "had been turning," implying that the turn to young adult fiction was in the past before some other past action. However, there is no other past action here. The bringing of revenue happened at the same time as the change in readers' tastes. The correct answer will fix this verb tense problem.

(A), (C), and (E) retain "had been," while (B) and (D) use "have been."

Since (A), (C), and (E) keep the past perfect, they can be eliminated. There is no other past action in the sentence.

(B) and (D) both bring the first part of the sentence into the present with "have been turning," but (D) puts the second part into the past ("brought"), so it can be eliminated.

(B) is the only choice that puts both parts of the sentence in a congruent time frame, so it's correct.

VerbalBot · Answer

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A growing number of mature readers had been turning to young adult fic

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A growing number of mature readers had been turning to young adult fic

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