Sentence correction

[Eddie Gutia]

Sentence: In the Fischer- Tropsch process, which was developed in Germany by Franz Firshcer and Hans Tropsch, coal is converted into a liquid fuel similar to petroleum.

Q- Instead of was developed, I believe has developed can also be used because the action started in the past and still has its effect in the present. Can you please confirm?

[jlucero]

Two issues:

1) You need a was to show passive tense. The process didn't develop by itself. It was developed by people.

2) Develop has more of a definitive end date to it. Your usage would be ok if people are continuing to develop it now, but it sounds like this process is already perfected and isn't being tinkered with anymore.

[JbhB682]

Hi, along the similar question, why is this not an alternative.

GMAT solution : In the Fischer-Tropsch process, which was developed in Germany by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, coal is converted into a liquid fuel similar to petroleum

My solution : In the Fischer-Tropsch process, which was developed in Germany by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, coal was converted into a liquid fuel similar to petroleum

Why is this not an alternative. Why cant i assume, this entire action is in the past and not in effect today ( no where in the rest of the sentence, does it indicate, the process still continues to date)

thanks,

[RonPurewal]

Hello,
Per the forum rules, please post the following:

"- A citation of the original source of the problem;

"- The entire text of the question;

- The entire text of all answer choices that accompany the problem.

We can't discuss the problem any further without these things.
Thanks.

[Eddie Gutia]

Hi Ron,

This is a sentence I picked from a published book and is not from a GMAT book. I would greatly appreciate if you or someone can answer my question.

Anyways, coming back to the original question, the reason why I am suggesting that present perfect can be used is because the effect of this action (which is that coal is converted into a liquid fuel) is still true. Hence, why can't we rewrite the sentence as below.

Original Sentence: In the Fischer- Tropsch process, which was developed in Germany by Franz Firshcer and Hans Tropsch, coal is converted into a liquid fuel similar to petroleum.

Modified Sentence: In the Fischer- Tropsch process, which has been developed in Germany by Franz Firshcer and Hans Tropsch, coal is converted into a liquid fuel similar to petroleum.

Thanks,
Aditya

[RonPurewal]

"Has been developed" implies that the process of development is ongoing up to this very day—i.e., that they're not done developing the process yet.

[MoussaR234]

Hello,

Thank you very much for this post.

This question is from MGMAT SC (V.5) book - The Verb Tense, Mood, & Voice (chapter 7) problem set, question number 13.

I have another issue with this question:

The intended timeline here is not clear: has the development of the process finished yet? or still ongoing? we have no indication of the time here. Maybe if you had said "... developed in Germany in 1870..." we could have inferred the timeline.

So we cannot just read the author's mind and adjust the tense sequence in this case. Therefore, I believe we need to use a predefined structure just to be safe:

You have mentioned in the same book that the tense sequence has to be either "present + future", or "past + conditional" - you have mentioned this with a "reporting problem" in that chapter, so I am not sure if this is a generally applicable rule ( in times of uncertainty!)

In your answer you have "past(was developed) + present (is converted)". This does not make sense to me. I do understand that "which was converted..." is a modifying clause, but does that eliminate the whole tense sequence issue in this case?

I believe we can use "has been developed" here, because either the development of the process is still ongoing, or the EFFECTS of the development of process are still valid (since the process still works!), and then use "would be converted". I find this the safest approach.

Or am I just over complicating the whole thing? :)

Thank you.

PS. I am a non-native speaker...

[RonPurewal]

if this example is from MGMAT materials, it should be posted in the MGMAT non-CAT folder.

please re-post your question(s) in that folder. thanks.