It's been ten years since she has been home

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lagoo

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1)It's been ten years since she has been home.
2)It's been ten years since she has been in the army.

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Sentence 1 means: She left her home and has never returned, and the duration from the day she left to the present is ten years.
Sentence 2 means: She has joined the army and is still in the army, and the duration from the day she joined the army to the present is ten years.

Please correct me if I have any mistake.
 

Skrej

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You are mistaken about #2.

#2 says that she left the army 10 years ago, and has stayed out of the army ever since.
 

emsr2d2

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For your given meaning, sentence 2 would have to be either "It's been ten years since she joined the army" (even then, we don't know if she's still in the army) or "She's been in the army for ten years" (we do know she's still in the army).
 

lagoo

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Thanks. But I am still confused.
Allow me to give another similar sentence numbered 3 as below:
3)It's been ten years since she has lived there.

In our school textbooks, it is deemed there is only one meaning in that, which means "she still lives there".
So either there has been a mistake in our textbooks, in which case I'd write to the editor, or the 3rd example sentence differs from the 2nd.
I need your further confirmation.

 

Skrej

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The only possible meaning for #3 is that she has lived elsewhere other than "there" for the last 10 years.
 

lagoo

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4)He hasn't contacted me since I have worked in that company.

What about this one?
Does it mean I have worked elsewhere other than "that company" since then?
 

jutfrank

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3) It's been ten years since she has lived there.

In our school textbooks, it is deemed there is only one meaning in that, which means "she still lives there"

I seriously doubt that that's what your textbook says.

Make sure you don't equate the following sentences:

It's been ten years since she's lived there.
She's lived there for ten years.
 

lagoo

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90902.jpg

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From the very authoritative book as showed above, the author intentionally put these similar sentences together to show the learners their differences.
Knowing no Chinese, you still can sense the aim of the author to make contrast between these sentences.
And I'm pretty sure, as a native Chinese, the Chinese explanation to each as printed after the corresponding English sentence is as follows:
a1: They left here 5 years ago.
a2: They have been living here for 5 years.
b1: She left the army 10 years ago.
b2: She has been in the army for 10 years.
 

emsr2d2

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It appears the book was not written by a native English speaker so there is a chance it's not exactly "very authoritative" at times.
 

jutfrank

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the author intentionally put these similar sentences together to show the learners their differences.


a1: They left here 5 years ago.
a2: They have been living here for 5 years.

b1: She left the army 10 years ago.
b2: She has been in the army for 10 years.

Yes, that's quite correct. The idea is that each sentence in each pair has a contrasting sense, right? That's right.

I believe that what you're struggling with here is the use of the word since. Let me provide a few more examples.

c: It's been 5 years since they left here.

d1: It's been 10 years since she left the army.
d2: It's been 10 years since she has been in the army.

e: It's been 10 years that she has been in the army.

Sentence c is equivalent to a1. Sentences d1 and d2 are both equivalent to b1. However, sentence e is equivalent to b2.
 
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