<p>Chinese watercolors have become more popular than [those by contemporary American and European artists]</p>
<p>Chinese watercolors have become more popular than [those of American and European pictures of the same period]</p>
<p>Why is the first correct, and the second not?</p>
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<p>Now that Michiko [finished] the research, she feels reasonably confident about writing her paper on the rise of progressive movement in the United States.</p>
<p>[Finished] is incorrect. In retrospect, I can tell it should obviously be "is finished," but I don't know what is wrong with just "finished." I had contemplated both options and concluded that both are ok, but I was wrong. </p>
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<p>By the end of the eighteenth century, watchmaking technology had greatly improved, [with watches included in the standard equipment for military personnel]</p>
<p>By the end of the eighteenth century, watchmaking technology had greatly improved, [and watches had become standard equipment for military personnel.]</p>
<p>Why is the second correct? I failed to see how it was better than the first</p>
<p>1) Simpler is always better. The simpler answer is always better than the answer with extra/unnecessary words.
2) I think it should be Had Finished, dunno why though
3) You always need a connector to connect between any 2 complete sentences.
,with is not a connector
,and is a connector, so in this sentence /and or a ; (semi colon) would be okay to connect the 2 sentences</p>
<p>2) should be ‘has finished’. you need to look for an ‘anchor’ verb that sets the tense for your sentence -> ‘feels reasonably confident’, a present tense verb. ‘has finished’ is a present-perfect tense, meaning it begins from some point in the past up to the present. you will always use the perfect tenses if the sentence is talking about an action that preceded immediately before another.</p>
<p>‘had finished’ is the past perfect - it began and ended at some point in the past. ‘is finished’ also doesn’t make sense; ‘michiko is finished the research’ just sounds wrong</p>