When more and more factories move out of the cities each year

When more and more factories move out of the cities each year, manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, have become fewer and fewer.

A) When more and more factories move out of the cities each year, manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, have become fewer and fewer
Jobs are countable...should be followed with "fewer", not "less". Present perfect isn't right here. There's no ambiguous sequence or continued action.

B) At the time that more and more factories move out of the cities each year, manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, become less and less
Wrong tense. Also "less" is incorrect.

C) When more and more factories move out of the cities each year, then manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, become less and less
"Then" isn't necessary. "Less" is incorrect.

D) Since more and more factories have moved out of the cities each year, manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, have become less and less
"Less" is incorrect.

E) As more and more factories move out of the cities each year, manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, become fewer and fewer
Correct.
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there are only 2 cases in which present perfect is used.

first, an action begin in a point of time in the past and continue until present. in this case, "since", "from" or "for " are used.

second, an action finished in a point of time in the past but its time frame continue until present. this concept is hard to understand. in other words, the finished action must be relevant to present.

the easy way to remember the two cases is an action start or finish at a past point of time.

both cases are not in choice A.

present perfect is a hard tense to understand. time frame of present perfect begin from the past and continue until present. this point is key to mastering present perfect. yes, I say it again. concept of time frame is key to mastering present perfect.

in present perfect , I see the action in a time frame which begins from a point in the past and continues until present. from this point , we can understand fully 2 cases of present perfect
first case is the action continue until present . it is clear that this action happen in a time frame which continue until present. this case is easy
the second case is harder. the action finished in the past but we consider that its time frame still continue until present. we consider this past action happen in a time frame which continue present because the action is relevant to present. this case is hard to use.
in contrast, simple past distances the action from present and, so, it require a specific point in past. time frame of simple past is in the past, which dose not continues until present and is far from present time. action in simple past is not relevant to present.

time frame of present perfecet ......................A...............................Ḅ(present)
time frame of simple past ....................A...............B(past).........C(present)......

time frame of present perfect AB , with B is present point. in contrast, time frame of simple past is AB , with C is present point.

so, the concept of time frame help us distinguish present perfect from past perfect.

simple present is the event which is always correct.we consider that action of simple present is correct in the past, at the moment of speaking and in the future.


choice E talk about a fact , which , we think at moment of speaking, is always correct. so, choice E is present simple.
I recommend you read some pages on present perfect in good grammar book.

mahi
Yes. You are correct. It is indeed a generality that is likely to repeat in the future too. Hence, the simple present rather than present perfect
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https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/02/us/blacks-would-feel-extra-impact-from-cuts-proposed-by-president.html

In the last decade, the unemployment rate among blacks was twice that of whites and never lower than 8 percent. The official unemployment rate of black teenagers was well over 30 percent for the entire decade. More and more factories moved out of the cities each year, and manufacturing jobs, for the urban poor historically the first step into the job market, dried up. In the 1970's, Chicago alone lost more than 200,000 jobs, mostly in manufacturing.
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AnjuliM
gagan0303
yunchieh

Here are the answers to your queries on answer choice C:

When more and more factories move out of the cities each year, then manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, become less and less

- yunchieh : The subject of the main clause is 'manufacturing jobs' and its verb is 'become'.
- gagan0303 and AnjuliM : The construction "when..., then..." is considered redundant. If a sentence begins with an adverb clause of time or condition starting with 'when', there is no need for 'then' at the start of the main clause.

Examples:
- When I reached home, my father was getting ready to leave for work.
- When it rains, the temperature falls.

Hope this helps.

Best,

GMAT Whiz Team
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@AshutoshB@anothermillenial@generis

need some advice please

Why we cant use the present perfect in this one?

Are we considering this as the general case in which we cannot use the perfect tense?

first error: countable/ UN-Countable things
employment is countable so option B,C,D IS OUT.

second error: idoms.
so, option A IS OUT because of incorrect idiom placement

we need to read grammar books first. but to remember the too many grammar point , we have to read text and realize the grammar points in the text. after reading text and realizing grammar points in the text, we will remember many grammar point.

simple present tense basically locate an event holding at present. we dont know the events continue into future or happened in the past. these meanings are derived from verb types.

there are 3 kinds of use of present simple

instantaneous present
action happens for a short time and at speech time. for example, "I press the fruits in the bag"

state present
situation exist before and after speech time. this is timeless fact
winter is colder than summer

habitual present
events happen offen before and after speech time. for example, I often get up at 6 am.

when reading the text, we should categorize the uses of simple tense to remembe the uses.

in our problem, habitualness is derived from "each year", a time indicator/adverb. so, simple present must be used, but not present perfect.

is there anything wrong with C apart from the usage of less and less?

Gagan

A) When more and more factories move out of the cities each year, manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, have become fewer and fewer

B) At the time that more and more factories move out of the cities each year, manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, become less and less

C) When more and more factories move out of the cities each year, then manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, become less and less and less

D) Since more and more factories have moved out of the cities each year, manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, have become less and less

E) As more and more factories move out of the cities each year, manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, become fewer and fewer correct

daagh
VeritasKarishma
Can option A be also eliminated for wrong usage of "When"
"When" implies at that particular time, thus the option A seems to imply that at those particular moments when factories move out of cities each year, the manufacturing jobs become fewer. Thereby the meaning is not logical.

Hi,
for the choice (C) When more and more factories move out of the cities each year, then manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, become less and less

May I say the "then" makes this sentence without a subject, since there is no main clause of this sentence?

Thank you

When more and more factories move out of the cities each year, then manufacturing jobs, historically the first step into the job market for the urban poor, become less and less

Hi@

Can any one please tell me if the usage of "then" is correct here?

I dont understand why not A. The jobs are becoming lfewer and fewer because of X, and the effects are still felt in the present

I understand that (A) is incorrect because of verb tense, but isn't "when more and more" also incorrect? Isn't the idiom "AS more and more"?