<p>Hello! Here is the question I came across:</p>
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[quote]
Thanks to the rapid growth of the internet, the internet service provider gained three million subscribers by 1996 and, by 1996, was gaining as many as a thousand new customers each week. No error
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The correct answer is B, gained, because it should be "has gained". Can you explain why "gained" is wrong in this sentence? </p>
<p>Thank you :)</p>
<p>because the service provider has gained BY 1996, a certain year, you would need to put HAS GAINED</p>
<p>it is had gained, not has gained.</p>
<p>I also think it should be “had gained…”</p>
<p>Yeah, I think you would need the past perfect because that event has been completed in the past and it does not affect the present, if it did, you would need the present perfect.</p>
<p>That was an awful typo! The correction is, indeed, “had gained”. Thanks for catching that mistake, and thanks again for helping me out :)</p>
<p>WongTongTong - So the reason it is “had gained” is because the event already happened? Wouldn’t “gained” be correct as well then?</p>
<p>It is had gained because it happened before a specific time period, 1996, which means that perfect past is the right tense.</p>