When the reporter asked about the status of the budget

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

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

Magoosh Official Explanation:

The first verb,  to fashion , was a present-time action for the governor, and because the governor emphasized “at   moment”, we know it must be in the progressive. The governor would have said “is fashioning” when we spoke, so in indirect speech, this becomes “was fashioning”. Only  (C)  has this correct.

The second verb,  to deliver , was a future-time action for the governor, and he would have said, “will deliver”. In indirect speech, this becomes “would deliver”. Both (C) & (D) have this correct.

The only possible answer is (C).

From  Sequence of Tenses on GMAT Sentence Correction

Blackbox · Answer

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?

aditya8062 · Answer

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 !!

Blackbox · Answer

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?

rahulsehgal · Answer

My friend, see the information available here - https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/sequence-o ... orrection/ I believe, this will surely help you in some way.

aditya8062 · Answer

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.

Blackbox · Answer

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.

pqhai · Answer

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.

ravi19012015 · Answer

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.

chetan2u · Answer

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.

AR15J · Answer

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?

abhimahna · Answer

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.

Nightmare007 · Answer

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.

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

thank you.

abhimahna · Answer

My friend, Past perfect should be used when we want to show the sequence of two events that happened in the past. For past perfect continuous, we need to show two events such that one happened earlier and was still continuing when the other started. So, you see? Again we have two events that happened in the past but one started before another. Your sentence below has a couple of mistakes: At that time they had been fashioning the compromise and would deliver the message by tomorrow. 1. There is only one event that happened in the past. So, using past perfect or past perfect continuous is incorrect. 2. When we say tomorrow or today, we need to make sure we are saying that in present. As per your sentence, it should not be tomorrow. It MUST be the next day. So, the correct sentence will be At that time they were fashioning the compromise and would deliver the message by the next day. I hope it makes sense.

Aman1012 · Answer

not convinced with the explanation provided by mike. Can you explain it further why past progressive is right here

bb · Answer

Because the sentence said the "team said" so it would be a past tense

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Choice A:  This answer choice uses the present tense verb "is fashioning" to refer to a past event. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice B:  This answer choice uses the simple present tense verb "fashions" to refer to a past event. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect

Choice C:  This answer choice correctly utilizes the simple past continuous tense to describe an action that was ongoing in the past. Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice D:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the past perfect continuous tense; the actions of the team are described as being simultaneous with the other event described in this sentence, the reporter asking a question, meaning there is no need to use this tense because the sentence refers to only one time period. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice E:  This answer choice uses the past perfect tense to refer to an action that was ongoing at the reported time of speaking. Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Continuous Tenses on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2puWKuLccCM

To understand the concept of "Present Perfect Continuous Tenses on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBdUop5KaLE

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

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