<p>After 140 years under the sea, the remains of the Monitor, an ironclad warship that was sunk during the Civil War, are being gradually brought to the surface.</p>
<p>In this sentence, there's no error.
Rule: I thought that when you have "after", you'll have the simple past or the past perfect. </p>
<p>I don't know the tense of "are being brought", but could someone explain to me how this does/doesn't defy the rule I stated.</p>
<p>the sentence is in the present tense. It’s stating that after 140 years, the remains are being brought up in the present.</p>
<p>So, are you saying that the rule I wrote is wrong?</p>
<p>Or is it that when you have “after” + noun (e.g duration), you can have whatever tense you want.
E.g
After 60 years, they finally met and discussed important issues but their selfishness led them to reach an impasse.
We are being treated so nicely by the administration after two years of discrimination.</p>
<p>Here, it’s “after” + clause: We are being treated so nicely by the administration after they mistreated us. Can we still use the present tense?</p>
<p>Ok, I think I got it. From about.com, here are the three uses of “after”:
After: (Future) after (Present) / (Present) after (Present) / (Past) after (Past or Past Perfect).</p>
<p>“We are being treated so nicely by the administration after they mistreated us.”
Here, it should be: “We were treated so nicely by the administration after they had mistreated us.” (Past) after (Past Perfect). We wouldn’t use the simple past because “mistreated us” happened over a long period of time in the past. Had it occurred at a specific time, we would have used the simple past. </p>
<p>After 140 years under the sea, the remains of the Monitor, an ironclad warship that was sunk during the Civil War, are being gradually brought to the surface.
(Present) after (Present), so it’s correct.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about the tense of “After 60 years”, but I would assume you can use whatever tense you when you have: “After” + Duration. Correct me if I’m wrong!</p>