<p>Although he pitched (professionally) for 3 decades, Nolan Ryan (never lost) any velocity in his fastbal, and few (maintained) such control over so many pitches as (he). (no error)</p>
<p>I picked up B [never lost] because I thought it should be [has never lost]. Don't we use present perfect with words "yet", "since", "for", "never", "already"?</p>
<p>Thanks for your time.</p>
<p>No. “He pitched” (rather than “he has pitched”) suggests that the action is complete. “Has never lost” implies continuing action.</p>
<p>whats the answer? i think it should be had maintained.C</p>
<p>
The rest of the sentence that you point to has little to do with the case of “never lost” versus “has never lost” (or “had never lost”). In other words, the simple tense of “pitched” does not suggest the simple tense of “lost.” Logically there is no parallel structure in the works here if that’s what you mean.</p>
<p>That being said, we can use “never lost” because it has to do with a general fact of the past. In the present we may say I never eat breakfast as a statement of a general fact of the present. If you start eating breakfast in 2012, then you might then say Before 2012, I never ate breakfast or, as an alternative, I had never eaten breakfast. Either work and mean roughly the same thing, although there is a distinction that I hope you can see as it is hard for me to explain.</p>
<p>Answer is No error. There’s no reason to use “had maintained” instead of “maintained” there because there is no time distinction that needs to be made between two past actions. Hence it would be wrong to use the past perfect. There’s a simple concept presented in an independent clause: Few people maintained such control over so many pitches as Nolan Ryan. Doesn’t that seem simple enough?</p>
<p>ahhh i see thanks crazy.</p>
<p>crazybandit,</p>
<p>I wasn’t making a generalization or referring to any parallel structure. I only meant that Ryan’s pitching is in the past and his never losing is in the past, so, like you say, no time distinction exists.</p>
<p>(If Ryan were still pitching, the sentence might have read, “Although he has pitched for three decades, he has never lost any velocity in his fastball.” The OP asked about “has never lost,” which, in this sentence, is not correct without “has pitched.”)</p>
<p>Sorry to be unclear!</p>
<p>@crazybandit
Thank you very much! You were right, the answer is E(no error).
Thanks guys!</p>