it was(is) unclear...

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LQZ

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Final rates for this year’s count will not be posted until early May, so it was unclear whether this year’s unprecedented publicity and marketing campaigns had reversed a decades-long decline. ---taken from the NYT

Dear teacher,

I am wondering whether the tenses of red verbs are wrongly used. To me,
it should read "it is unclear .......have reversed a decades-long decline". Could you nicely tell me if my reworded and the original are both fine?
Thanks.


LQZ
 

emsr2d2

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Final rates for this year’s count will not be posted until early May, so it was unclear whether this year’s unprecedented publicity and marketing campaigns had reversed a decades-long decline. ---taken from the NYT

Dear teacher,

I am wondering whether the tenses of red verbs are wrongly used. To me,
it should read "it is unclear .......have reversed a decades-long decline". Could you nicely tell me if my reworded and the original are both fine?
Thanks.


LQZ

In my opinion, your reworded version is much better! Unless there is something else in the rest of the article explaining why they would use the past tenses, I agree with you that "is" and "have" are much better choices. My only other suggestion is that they could say "it is unclear if....... will have reversed.......".
 

LQZ

Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2009
Member Type
Other
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
China
Current Location
China
In my opinion, your reworded version is much better! Unless there is something else in the rest of the article explaining why they would use the past tenses, I agree with you that "is" and "have" are much better choices. My only other suggestion is that they could say "it is unclear if....... will have reversed.......".


Thanks emsr2d2.:)
 
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