Verb Tense

Question

Please anyone help me to find the answer (with proper explanation) of this below question.

The cop car  crossed  the intersection when the signal turned red.

Question:   Select the correct answer choice if the cop car started crossing the intersection when the signal turned red.

Answer choices:

A. crossed
B. was crossing
C. has been crossing
D. is crossing
E. has crossed

chetan2u · Answer

lets see the choices and what do they convey..
A. crossed
The cop car  crossed  the intersection when the signal turned red.
 signal turned red and car xed the intersection

B. was crossing
The cop car  was crossing  the intersection when the signal turned red.
 this means that the cop car was in the process of xg the intersection when the red light turned on..

C. has been crossing
The cop car  has been crossing  the intersection when the signal turned red..
 improper usage of tenses.. has been with turned..

D. is crossing
The cop car  is crossing  the intersection when the signal turned red.
 again improper usage of tenses.. is with turned..

E. has crossed
 same as C and D..

SamTheLearner · Answer

Thanks for the explanation,  chetan2u

So, what is the answer of the question? A or B?

chetan2u · Answer

Hi,
As the intent is to find that the cop started xg the intersection when signal turned road, I would say A..
B means he was already xg it, when the signal turned red..

So A

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi SamTheLearner,

You'll likely get more of a response if you post this (and any other SC questions that you might have) in the SC Forum:

gmat-sentence-correction-sc-138/

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

sukanyar · Answer

I would say "was crossing" option B. What is the source and what's the OA?

SamTheLearner · Answer

Sorry, I don't know the Official Answer.
The source is egmat.

HWPO · Answer

Many have commented on it (on their website). I don't know why they decided that choice A is the answer. When a traffic light changes from one color to another, it's a PROCESS.

Two actions that happened at the SAME time can be written with V2, i.e. : "I drank and ate"
Now if the traffic changed to red and the cop crossed the intersection, I would interpret it as if he was about to complete/completed crossing the intersection and the light turned red at the SAME time.

But they (on E-GMAT) said he STARTED to cross when the signal turned red. It just seems more logical to me that "the cop WAS crossing...when the signal turned red". Maybe I'm wrong, but this is how I see it.

Verb Tense

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