Question
Along the major rivers that traverse the deserts of northeast Africa, the Middle East, and northwest India, the combination of a reliable supply of water and good growing conditions both encouraged farming traditions that, in places, endure in at least 6,000 years.
Option A
Option B
Option C
Option D
Option E
(This question is from Official Guide. Therefore, because of copyrights, the complete question cannot be copied here. The question can be accessed at GMAT Club)
Solution
Sentence Analysis
Here’s the sentence structure:
- Along the major rivers (Modifies the main clause: “the combination encouraged farming traditions along the major rivers)
- that traverse the deserts of (relative clause modifying “rivers”)
- northeast Africa,
- the Middle East,
- and northwest India,
- the combination of (Main subject – “the combination”)
- a reliable supply of water and
- good growing conditions both
- encouraged farming traditions (Main verb – “encouraged”)
- that, in places, endure in at least 6,000 years. (relative clause modifying “farming traditions”)
- that traverse the deserts of (relative clause modifying “rivers”)
Breaking down a sentence or understanding the sentence structure helps a lot in focusing on the essence of the sentence and prevents us from getting lost in the details. When we look at the sentence structure, we can see that the sentence essentially says that along some rivers, the combination of two things encouraged some farming traditions and that these farming traditions have endured for at least 6000 years.
The problems with the sentence are:
- The use of “combination” and “both” creates redundancy.
- The use of simple present “endure” is incorrect. From the context of the sentence, it is clear that we do not intend to present a general fact or rule about the farming traditions that they endure for 6000 years. We want to say that these farming traditions endured (or have endured) for 6000 years.
- The preposition “in” is incorrect after “endure”. The correct structure is “endure for”, not “endure in”.
Option Analysis
(A) Incorrect. For the errors described above.
(B) Correct. This option corrects all the errors in the original sentence without introducing any new error.
(C) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- The correct idiom is “combination of X and Y”. Saying “combination of X and of Y” is incorrect.
- The plural verb “have encouraged” doesn’t agree with the singular subject “combination”.
- The present perfect “have encouraged” indicates we’re talking about the time till present. However, the simple past “endured” indicates some uncertain past. The first part means that something has encouraged farming traditions (till now). The second part means that these farming traditions endured for 6000 years (sometime in the past). Thus, the sentence produces an illogical meaning.
(D) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- Error no. 1 of option C
- Error no. 1 of the original sentence
- “endured” without the preposition “for” creates an illogical meaning that the farming traditions have suffered 6000 years.
(E) Incorrect. For the following reasons:
- Error no. 1 of option C
- OG explanation says that the use of present perfect progressive “have been enduring” is not grammatically incorrect but inappropriate. I agree with the explanation because there is no need to highlight the “happening” of the action “endure”. As I have discussed in other questions as well, we should not use progressive tense to present general information. The use of progressive tense should be limited to present actions happening in the moment.
….and good growing conditions have encouraged farming traditions that, in places, have endured for 6,000 years.- Correct?
The child HAS DRAWN a square in the sand, but the ocean HAS ERASED it.- AWKWARD- what happened first – Awkward
I have picked the items that have fallen down- awkward – action happened one after another.
Teacher has selected the students who have played well for 2 months – [header3]OK[/header3]( selection effect till now , students have played well – effect till now)
Question:
Can a present perfect tense be used in main clause and relative clause together in a sentence?
Yes. Your third sentence is fine.
However, I don’t think the below sentence is correct:
good growing conditions have encouraged farming traditions that, in places, have endured for 6,000 years
From the context of the sentence, it seems that farming traditions were encouraged in the past, and then they have endured till the present moment. If the “encouraging” part is still going on, what’s the point of “enduring”?
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