Verbal questions and topics from the Official Guide and Verbal Review books.
Guest79
 
 

OG - SC - #81

by Guest79 Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:35 pm

In an effort to reduce teir inventories, Italian vintners have cut prices;their wines have been priced to sell, and they are

(A) have been priced to sell, and they are
(B) are priced to sell, and they have
(C) are priced to sell, and they do
(D) are being priced to sell, and have
(E) had been priced to sell, and they have


OG - is D. My question is if one of the choices would be for ex -

(F) have been priced to sell, and they do.

Which would be better (C) or (F). Please explain.

Thanks
Guest79
 
 

by Guest79 Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:47 pm

Also for the choice (D) - OG says omitting the subject 'they' means that the comma should be ommited too. What is the grammatical reason behind it? Is it because ommiting the subject converts the rest of the part from a clause to a phrase? Could you please explain?

Thanks
StaceyKoprince
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by StaceyKoprince Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:08 am

Answer is C, not D. Please be careful when transcribing answers, as other students will try to study from these questions!

They would not give you two such close choices; either would be grammatically correct. Present perfect and present are very closely related; they partially overlap in time.

"They have" is an independent clause - that is, it can stand on its own as a sentence - so we connect it with other independent clauses via a comma and coordinating conjunction (eg, "are priced to sell, and they have."). When you remove "they," the clause is no longer independent - you just have the verb "have" now - so you are not required to use the "comma + coordinating conjunction" setup that is required when you connect two indepedent clauses.
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