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Bunuel
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The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments 11 Jul 2018, 06:44
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E
Be sure to select an answer first to save it in the Error Log before revealing the correct answer (OA)!

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5% (low)

Question Stats:

91% (00:30) correct 9% (00:35) wrong based on 434 sessions

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The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments, have been being the subject of recent political debate.

A. have been being
B. have been
C. were
D. has been being
E. has been
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Official Answer
E
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The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments 11 Jul 2018, 06:50
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+1 for E.

A. have been being
B. have been
C. were
D. has been being
E. has been --> Correct, Tax....has been....

Hence, E.
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The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments 11 Jul 2018, 06:56
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Bunuel
The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments, have been being the subject of recent political debate.

A. have been being
B. have been
C. were
D. has been being
E. has been
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Subject : the capital gains tax
Verb : It must be singular . So , has been is the correct answer. Being makes the sentence awkward.

The best answer is E.
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The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments 11 Jul 2018, 07:12
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The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments, have been being the subject of recent political debate.

A. have been being
B. have been
C. were
D. has been being
E. has been

Option E
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The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments 11 Jul 2018, 10:06
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A. have been being
B. have been
C. were
D. has been being
E. has been

Answer is E
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The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments 11 Jul 2018, 10:23
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Bunuel
The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments, have been being the subject of recent political debate.

A. have been being
B. have been
C. were
D. has been being
E. has been
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Correct Answer must be (E) for the highlighted errors in other options.
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The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments 07 Jun 2020, 23:24
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Can anyone please highlight what is wrong with 'were'?
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The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments 08 Jun 2020, 20:17
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davidbeckham
Can anyone please highlight what is wrong with 'were'?
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Hi davidbeckham

First of all we cannot use a plural verb 'were' here as our subject is singular.

Rather we could use 'was'. This would be grammatically correct, but then the meaning will have changed. Lets see how.

Original - The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments, have been being the subject of recent political debate.
Modified - The capital gains tax,levied against profits earned on investments, was the subject of recent political debate.

In the original sentence, we can understand that sentence is trying to say that the topic of 'capital gains tax' is ,up till the present time, the subject of recent political debate.
Now if we look at the modified sentence, it changes the meaning by saying that the topic of 'capital gains tax' was, some time in the past which could be our near past or distant past but definetly not our present or till our present, the subject of recent political debate.

Hence changing the tense will make the meaning change.

Hence 'were' is wrong in terms of both grammar and meaning.

Hope this helps in clearing your doubt to some extent !!! :)
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The capital gains tax, levied against profits earned on investments 14 Nov 2022, 18:28
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