<p>if something happened in the past and still happening today, you use the present perfect tense? ex:has been, have been, have eaten etc...</p>
<p>but with one of the questions for CB's online course the question goes...
2. First run in 1867 and still taking place every summer, the Belmont Stakes, a horse race for thoroughbred three-year-olds, [was] one of the oldest races in the United States.
a)was
b)is
c)were
d)are
e)has been</p>
<p>The answer is b...according to collegeboard</p>
<p>^I am pretty sure you meant to say B; otherwise, their would be a huge contradiction in your post. </p>
<p>The answer is (B) because present tense is the tense we use for something that is going on today (as you already know).</p>
<p>Nevermind. Just look at this website: <a href=“Present Perfect Continuous Tense | Grammar | EnglishClub”>Present Perfect Continuous Tense | Grammar | EnglishClub;
<p>For present perfect tense.</p>
<p>And this for simple present: <a href=“Present Simple | Grammar | EnglishClub”>Present Simple | Grammar | EnglishClub;
<p>The learning process is better when you attempt it yourself. P.S. I got a 780 by doing that.</p>
<p>ah *** at my post so…sorry lol. And yeh its pretty confusing</p>
<p>The sentence is stating something about the present. The Belmont Stakes is one of the oldest races in the United States. How do you find anything wrong with that sentence?
No. It is used to express a past action with present consequences. In I have eaten, the past action is eating and the present consequence is a full stomach.</p>
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<p>That’s not always true. Look at this website: [Present</a> Perfect Continuous Tense](<a href=“http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present-perfect-continuous.htm]Present”>Present Perfect Continuous | Learn English)</p>
<p>There are two usages, the second being the continuation of an act from the past to the present.</p>
<p>Lol, I got this question wrong too, I marked E like you because the present perfect: </p>
<p>" We use the present perfect when we think a situation has not ended"
according to Oxford’s Grammar book.</p>
<p>a horse race that has taken place every year since 1867, and is still going on, matches the present perfect</p>
<p>I think its ******** and that E is the right answer</p>
<p>
There are more than two usages of the present perfect, but the main usage is the one I stated. The present perfect continuous is just a narrower (more specific) use of the present perfect in which the verb is strictly *be<a href=“e.g.,” title=“I have been eating”>/i</a>.
Hitler has been dead. --is incorrect because the context doesn’t warrant the present perfect tense. Hitler is dead is correct. If you wanted to use the present perfect tense properly you would say something like Hitler has been dead for 65 years. You can’t say The horse race has been one of the oldest races in the U.S. without context. “First run in 1867” is not “context,” by the way; it is a parenthetical phrase that is there just to describe the race and is not essential to the independent clause stating that it is one of the oldest races in the U.S.</p>
<p>^I agree…</p>
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<p>So what if the usage you stated is the main one? That doesn’t make the second usage I mentioned wrong and thus make E an invalid answer</p>
<p>I also don’t understand your point in the second sentence.</p>
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<p>Contextual information is anything that allows me to understand background info on the topic. “First run in 1867” certainly informs me about the Bellmont horse race</p>
<p>“and still taking place every summer” informs me about the context, doesnt it?</p>
<p>
You are right that the present perfect continuous (“has been”) is relevant here. What I meant by my second sentence was that the present perfect continuous is still the present perfect, and so the “main usage” still applies. It’s just that the “second usage” is a slight variation of that. This doesn’t mean that I think the second usage is wrong. I was just stating the main one to explain what the present perfect is.
Here is an example of purely descriptive context and the simple present tense: Born in 1915, my 95-year-old grandma is very old. The use of the simple past tense here is very straightforward. She is old. Born in 1915, she is old. We don’t mechanically switch to the present perfect She has been old just because the number stated as her age is high, she has been old for a long time, etc. The present perfect isn’t a necessary correction or a replacement of the simple past. It’s just something of a different context. A general rule of thumb is that, in context, if the simple past (“she is old”) works then the present perfect (“she has been old”) cannot. Of course there might be exceptions.</p>
<p>The sentence about the horse race is saying that the horse race is an old race. I honestly find it hard to believe that this tense can be thought of as incorrect, or that “has been” is correct (it isn’t). It doesn’t matter that the race is over 100 years old or how long some time period is. The present perfect tense is only relevant insofar as the context requires you to express the present consequences of a past event (“I have studied and now, consequentially, I am ready for the exam”), OR, as you bring up, an ongoing action continuing into the present (“I have been studying and I hope to finish soon”). Neither of these usages is relevant, because the sentence is just making a statement about the horse race’s present status of being one of the oldest races in the U.S. in 2010.</p>
<p>Think about it like this. “has been” implies that there is some starting point in the past: since when has it been like that? The only time stated in the sentence is the year 1867. This means that the sentence is suggesting that the horse race has been one of the oldest races in the United States since 1867, which isn’t logical. In 1867, it was new; in 2010, it is old. Where can the line be drawn? “has been” requires a clear line to be drawn: for example, in It has been there for 2 weeks, the time period is drawn to 2 weeks ago. But there isn’t one in the sentence about the horse race. “it is old” is inescapably better than “it has been old” (since when?) in this context.</p>
<p>head hurts! but i kinda get it now! thanks</p>