n_adroja Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 17. Bob Wilber became Sidney Bechet’s student and protege when he was nineteen and, for a few years in the 1940’s, came as close to being a carbon copy of the jazz virtuoso in performance as anyone has ever come. (A) as anyone has ever come (B) as anyone ever had been © as anyone ever had done (D) that anyone ever did (E) that anyone ever OA - C why not B? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amitraj Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 n_adroja, I am not sure if I am right but let me explain my thought process. Based on the sentence, Bob Wilber became Sidney Bechet’s student and protege when he was nineteen and, for a few years in the 1940’s, came as close to being a carbon copy of the jazz virtuoso in performance as anyone has ever come. Part of the sentence in Red Ink means that this event was in the past and got over in the past. It should be "as anyone had ever done". Use of "been" is to display a continuous action. This action has been completed in the past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bschool_guru Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 let me try : The comparison is in how close he "came" -- so we have few ways of saying this : 1. as anyone had ever come 2. as anyone ever had done 3. as anyone ever came [ this is lest preferred since this is not perfect tense ] again, the comparison is between the verb "came" and not the forms of verb "to be" -- ( being, been, did ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
800Bob Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 The "OA" is wrong. The best answer is A. B and C are both wrong because "ever" is misplaced. Adverbs of frequency ("always," "never," "often," "seldom," "ever," etc.) must be placed between the auxiliary verb and the past participle. Should be: "as anyone had ever done." There is nothing wrong with using the present perfect "has come" in A. It means that Wilber came as close to being a carbon copy of the jazz virtuoso as anyone had come before or has come since. Consider the following examples: "In 1960 Johnson scored as many goals as anyone had ever scored in one year." "In 1960 Johnson scored as many goals as anyone has ever scored in one year." In the first example, Johnson's number of goals in 1960 is compared only with previous years. In the second example his number of goals in 1960 is compared with all years before and since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipaksingh Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 agree with 800Bob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amitraj Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 Can someone/anyone throw more light on this one? I think I am loosing it. d_adroja, In the meantime, can you confirm the answer one more time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_adroja Posted January 15, 2005 Author Share Posted January 15, 2005 OA is CCan someone/anyone throw more light on this one? I think I am loosing it. d_adroja, In the meantime, can you confirm the answer one more time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fighter Posted January 15, 2005 Share Posted January 15, 2005 Hi n_adroja. I am confused now. Is the OA a genuine source. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bschool_guru Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 800bob, please read amitraj's first post on this -- I agree with him that the incident in the question was set in 1940s. So it is a perfect tense. his coming close to was set in past. In your example the second sentence is compariing things to the time right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatchanon Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 17. Bob Wilber became Sidney Bechet’s student and protege when he was nineteen and, for a few years in the 1940’s, came as close to being a carbon copy of the jazz virtuoso in performance as anyone has ever come. (A) as anyone has ever come (B) as anyone ever had been © as anyone ever had done (D) that anyone ever did (E) that anyone ever OA - C why not B? Agree that we should use past perfect in this question. However, Could S/O explain why "done" is right and "been" is wrong. Firstly, I think "B" is right. TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bschool_guru Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 thatchanon -- see last line of my first poste to this thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
800Bob Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 Either past perfect or present perfect would be correct. But C puts "ever" in the wrong place and so cannot be correct. I see nothing wrong with A. For a few years in the 1940s Wilber came very close to being a carbon copy of his teacher. To this day, no one has ever come closer. I have seen quite a few cases in which the so-called "OA" is wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobileindiguy Posted January 16, 2005 Share Posted January 16, 2005 The choice "A" looks better. The explanations given by bschool_guru / 800Bob look better. Verbal, sometimes, gives nightmares. At first, this sentence looks like a comparison problem. However, for whatever reasons, I am not able to digest this OA as C. Also, the various explanations are heading toward different directions. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krutoi Posted May 24, 2005 Share Posted May 24, 2005 what is OA....?:blush: thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aimhighest Posted November 23, 2006 Share Posted November 23, 2006 Nice explanation as always, Bob! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeJung Posted November 23, 2006 Share Posted November 23, 2006 bob is good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
humblewinner Posted December 16, 2006 Share Posted December 16, 2006 MikeJung, it is not "good" it should be "best" :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fØrti Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 imo A Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeJung Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 oa has to be A. thats what i thought when i looked at the Q. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ankit0uc Posted September 5, 2008 Share Posted September 5, 2008 OA is A not C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaTum Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 Thanks Bob for your lecture about Tense and Word Placement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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