Can you please also post POE and OE? Somehow, I think "at that very moment" is the key to the answer and the answer should reflect present continuous tense? Isn't it?

the answer has to be C: was fashioning a compromise and would deliver

the answer is in reported speech . in such cases the tense makes a jump from its usual tense !!

I agree. But what is the importance of "at that very moment". I still can't shake off the feeling that the original option fits just about right So for all reported speech type statements, what is the rule of thumb?

My friend, see the information available here - http://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/sequence-o ... orrection/

I believe, this will surely help you in some way.
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yeah it is important. in fact without this phrase i wouldn't have been able to decide between "was fashioning" AND "had been fashioning" . the reasoning is as follows:
as i have said in reported speech the tenses makes a usual jump. now that is a very crude way of saying but what does that actually mean?
suppose i met the governor and he said following thing to me: "at that very moment, his team is fashioning...." then that would become in reported speech as "at that very moment, his team was fashioning...."-----> now the important role that the phrase "at that very moment" is playing is that it is guiding me to the fact that the manager was talking in present progressive tense. without this phrase i am left to a possibility that he might be talking in "past progressive", in that case my reported speech would have been "had been fashioning ......"
NOW the important point is has GMAC ever tested such constructions? i do not remember any official problem that has tested such a nuance.
i will appreciate if the makers of this question (MIKE & TEAM) can chime in to further elaborate.

Excerpt from Mike's (Magoosh) explanation:

Direct speech means we use quotation marks around what is said, to indicate that it is the exact wording.
The governor said, “They are working right now and will deliver it.”
Whenever the quotation marks are absent and the word “that” is present, that’s indirect speech.

Answer C.

At that very moment wants a past continous form because the action is taking place now, but now stands for "at that moment in the past"


Hope it's clear

In reporting sentences, we have to go back 1 tense. Because the governor said that..... --> "is fashioning" & "will deliver" are wrong.

When the reporter asked about the status of the budget, the governor said that, at that very moment, his team is fashioning a compromise and will deliver it to the senate offices by later that afternoon.

A) is fashioning a compromise and will deliver --> WRONG
B) fashions a compromise and will deliver --> WRONG
C) was fashioning a compromise and would deliver --> CORRECT
D) had been fashioning a compromise and would deliver --> WRONG
E) has fashioned a compromise and will deliver --> WRONG

Hope it helps.

Reporting speech :

Therefore trick is change simple present to simple past,
Simple future to conditional

In this simple present ---> is fashioning a compromise to simple past ---> was fashioning a compromise
Simple future ---> will deliver to conditional ----> would deliver

hence C !!

Regards
LS
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When the reporter asked about the status of the budget, the governor said that, at that very moment, his team is fashioning a compromise and will deliver it to the senate offices by later that afternoon.

A) is fashioning a compromise and will deliver
B) fashions a compromise and will deliver
C) was fashioning a compromise and would deliver
D) had been fashioning a compromise and would deliver
E)has fashioned a compromise and will deliver

For this question, the subject of the sentence is the governor- who said his team( he talked about something that would happen in the future- so I guess this is why it is 'would' deliver) but I don't understand why it is "was fashioning".

The answer was C.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

How would you solve this question?

Thanks!!

The reporter "asked"
Action in past
The team was planning in the past and was going to deliver in the near future
when talking about future in past, "would" is used

So, C

chetan2u

Sir, could you please confirm my analysis of this question.

When the reporter asked about the status of the budget, the governor said that, at that very moment, his team is fashioning a compromise and will deliver it to the senate offices by later that afternoon.
A) is fashioning a compromise and will deliver
B) fashions a compromise and will deliver
C) was fashioning a compromise and would deliver
D) had been fashioning a compromise and would deliver
E) has fashioned a compromise and will deliver

I cancelled Choice D because there is no connection between any simple tense activity and the Perfect Continuous tense mention in Option D. Correct?

Thanks.

Hi ravi19012015,

You are correct..
Here we are using 'Past perfect continuous' and this is correct only when we are talking of an event which happened in the past , continued for some time and finished in past itself.
He had beenplaying for 2 hrs when his mother called him home.

But here you require simple past and simple past would be correct here.
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the sentence is talking about future from the past perspective so ans is C

My first post!
In this sentence I noticed ''the governor said that, at that very moment, his team'' --> we need past,--> A B E are out
The use of past perfect in D is redundant and it means that '' fashioning a compromise'' is something the government made before, but ''at the same moment'' makes all this without sense, so answer D is out. -->C

Hi chetan2u,

I made the question right because this is what we learnt while changing active to passive voice.

However, this sentence made me think why can choice D not be correct.

I am doing this job from last two years.

I have been doing this job for last two year.

Are the above two sentences correct ? If yes, is there any difference between the two?

When the reporter asked about the status of the budget, the governor said that, at that very moment, his team is fashioning a compromise and will deliver it to the senate offices by later that afternoon.

A) is fashioning a compromise and will deliver
B) fashions a compromise and will deliver
C) was fashioning a compromise and would deliver
D) had been fashioning a compromise and would deliver
E) has fashioned a compromise and will deliver

Clear answer C

To answer why D is incorrect:

Notice the phrase "at that very moment". It means both the actions happened at the same time. Hence, there is no sequence of tenses that we need to follow. "Governor said" and "team was fashioning" are both happening at the same time.

To answer your other question:

I am doing this job from last two years. ( INCORRECT. If you are saying the action is continuing since last two years, you MUST use present perfect tense.)

I have been doing this job for last two year. (100% correct).

I hope that makes sense.
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Hi I got a doubt in this question about usage of past perfect continuous.

At that time in past Those people were doing some ongoing action of fashioning a compromise. So why cannot we use past perfect continuous there.

at that time they had been fashioning the compromise and would deliver the message by tomorrow. .

Waiting for replies concerning my question. +kudos if the reply satisfies me. thank you.