<p>Sometimes I see both present and past tenses on a Writing question. The rule is that if a tense does not agree with the other, then it is wrong. But look at the following examples:</p>
<p>Candy manufacturers applauded the A(discovery by) researchers that students B(which) smell chocolate) while studying and C(again while taking) a test D(are able to) recall more material than students not exposed to the odor of chocolate. E(No Error)</p>
<p>A(For the past) hundred years or more, Yellowstone National Park B(was) a kind of sociological laboratory C(in which) North Americans have been exploring D(the meaning of) the national-park concept. E(No Error)</p>
<p>I know the error is B for the first example, that it has to be students who. However, there is a tense contradiction in choice D. Silverturtle mentioned that if the sentence makes logical sense, then there can be contradiction in the tenses. This is pretty confusing for me. In the second example, the answer is B, where it should be has been because of the agreement of the present perfect tense. </p>
<p>I'm really confused on this rule. So do you guys have any tips of how you approach these problems?</p>
<p>Also does Collegeboard consider present perfect tense and present progressive tense to be different? They are technically different but they are generally the same...</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>In some sentences, it may seem as though a pair of words are contradicted; however, that doesn’t, necessarily, make the sentence incorrect.</p>
<p>
The underlined portion of this sentence has to be “has been” because it conforms with “For the past hundred years or more,” not because it conforms with the second present perfect “have been” that appears later in the sentence. They both just happen to be the same tense because everything is restricted and hence occurs in the same time frame (“For the past hundred years or more”). If you don’t know what I mean by restricted, don’t worry about it. Just know that you shouldn’t be matching the tenses of multiple verbs in a sentence; you should be looking at the context. Not all verbs in a sentence have to be the same tense automatically. Each verb’s tense depends on logic, meaning of the sentence, and context.
Once again, the tenses of two verbs in a sentence, “applauded” and “are,” do not have to be the same (although they can be). The context shows that the two actions are not occurring at the same time. The applauding took place in the past because the candy manufacturers applauded the discovery in the past (e.g., in 2009). The present tense “students who smell chocolate while studying and again while taking a test are able to recall more material” is in the present tense because it is a general statement. If I make a statement saying “1 in 10 men are colorblind,” I’m just making a general statement. I may have discovered this in the past, but I can still use the present tense. Similarly, if I am talking about nonfiction literature (a book), I may have read the book in the past, and the main character may have died in real life, but I still use present tense to talk about the main character’s actions in the book: “The main character jumps off a building in chapter 25.” So when you making a general statement about social conditions or when you are talking about the plot of a piece of literature, then you use the present tense. The ultimate lesson here is that not all tenses of verb in a sentence have to conform just because they appear in the same sentence; tenses vary depending on context.</p>
<p>Now when the context and structure of a sentence calls for consistent tenses, as in Henry eats while David sleeps, where the word “while” tells you that the two actions occur in the same time frame and thus must have the same tense, then you need consistent tenses. The sentence I found out that 1 in 10 men are colorblind does not call for consistent tenses because the action of research and the subject of the research don’t necessarily have to be the same: for example if I do research on WWI, the research may be taking place in the present, but WWI took place in the past: I am learning that WWI was a deadly war. It’s almost ridiculous to say the verbs have to match in tense “just because” once you understand that sentences vary in context.
Of course “I have eaten” is different from “I am eating.” If you mean “present perfect continuous” instead of “present progressive,” then (similarly) of course “I have eaten” is different from “I have been eating.” Present perfect continuous is still present perfect, so you are right about that. But these comparisons mean nothing because the rule that the tenses of all verbs in a sentence have to be the same isn’t true. (I doubt anyone truly believes that it is true.) It is true in some cases. It all depends on context.</p>