With Government Funding for the Arts Dwindling, Even Major Orchestras Would Feel the Pressure of Trying to Meet Their Payroll

Question: With government funding for the arts dwindling, even major orchestras would feel the pressure of trying to meet their payroll and travel costs over the past several years.

(A) would feel
(B) will feel
(C) have felt
(D) feel
(E) are feeling

“With government funding for the arts dwindling, even major orchestras would feel the pressure of trying to meet their payroll”- is a GMAT sentence correction question. This particular GMAT sentence correction topic has been taken from the book ‘The Official Guide of GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition, 2009’. This question checks the tenses used in the options. GMAT Sentence Correction questions comprise 11-16 questions to be completed within 65 minutes. Each Sentence Correction question contains a sentence with an underlined portion that includes 0-2 errors.

Answer: C
Explanation: The following concept is tested here:

1. Tense

Option A: Incorrect

This option is incorrect because it incorrectly uses the conditional tense “would feel” which is totally illogical because we are talking about an actual occurrence in the statement. “Would” is used to show possibility or future tense. So, Option A is incorrect.

Option B: Incorrect

This option is incorrect because of the use of “will feel” which indicates some future event. The event mentioned in the statement is not for the future, it totally contradicts the past and present nature of the event. So, Option B is incorrect.

Option C: Correct

This option is correct because the present perfect tense “have felt” correctly indicates that the orchestras started to feel the pressure in the past and continue to feel the pressure in the present. Since this option uses correct tenses, Option C is correct.

Option D: Incorrect

This option is incorrect because it incorrectly uses the simple present tense “feel”, which is completely illogical. This does not indicate that the event started in the past and is continuing in the past. So, Option D is incorrect.

Option E: Incorrect

This option is incorrect because it uses the present tense “are feeling”, which fails to convey the intended meaning of the statement. It does not indicate the past nature of the event and the way it continues even in the present. So, Option E is incorrect.

Suggested GMAT Sentence Correction Samples

• Hurricanes at First Begin Traveling from East to West, because that Direction is the way the Prevailing Winds in the Tropics Blow, but they then Veer off Toward Higher Latitudes
• As Criminal Activity on the Internet Becomes More and More Sophisticated, Not only are Thieves able to Divert Cash from Company Bank Accounts
• Because an Oversupply of Computer Chips has Sent Prices Plunging, the Manufacturer has Announced that it will Cut Production by Closing its Factories for Two Days a Month.
• Thelonious Monk, who was a Jazz Pianist and Composer, Produced a Body of Work both Rooted in the Stride-Piano Tradition of Willie (The Lion) Smith and Duke Ellington, Yet in Many ways he Stood Apart from the Mainstream Jazz Repertory.
• Proponents of Artificial Intelligence say they will be able to make Computers that can Understand English and Other Human Languages, Recognize Objects, and Reason as an Expert does—Computers that will be used to Diagnose Equipment Breakdowns, Deciding Whether to Authorize a Loan, or Other Purposes such as these.
• Starfish, With Anywhere from Five to Eight arms, Have a Strong Regenerative Ability, and If One arm is Lost it Quickly Replaces It, Sometimes by the Animal Overcompensating and Growing an Extra One or Two.
• In Ancient Thailand, Much of the Local Artisans' Creative Energy was Expended for the Creation of Buddha Images and When they Constructed and Decorated the Temples that Enshrined them.
• Seldom More Than 40 Feet Wide and 12 Feet Deep, but It Ran 363 miles Across the Rugged Wilderness of Upstate New York
• November is Traditionally the Strongest Month for Sales of Light Trucks
• Elizabeth Barber, the Author of Both Prehistoric Textiles, a Comprehensive Work on Cloth in the Early Cultures of the Mediterranean
• According to scholars, the earliest writing was probably not a direct rendering of speech, but was more likely to begin as a separate and distinct symbolic system of communication, and only later merged with spoken language.
• Created in 1945 to Reduce Poverty and Stabilize Foreign Currency Markets, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have, According to Some Critics
• As an actress and, more importantly, as a teacher of acting, Stella Adler was one of the most influential artists in the American theater, who trained several generations of actors including Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.
• Despite the Increasing Number of Women Graduating from Law School and Passing Bar Examinations, the Proportion of Judges and Partners at Major Law Firms who are Women have not Risen to a Comparable Extent.
• ​The Word Vixen is a Female Fox.
• Fossils of the Arm of a Sloth Found in Puerto Rico in 1991, and Dated at 34 Million Years Old, Made it the Earliest known Mammal of the Greater Antilles Island.
• Nobody Knows Exactly How many Languages there are in the World, Partly Because of the Difficulty of Distinguishing Between a Language and the Sub-Languages or Dialects Within It
• Reporting that One of its Many Problems had been the Recent Extended Sales Slump in Women's Apparel, the Seven-Store Retailer said it would Start a Three-Month Liquidation Sale in all of its Stores.
• According to Recent Studies Comparing the Nutritional Value of Meat from Wild Animals and Meat from Domesticated Animals, Wild Animals have Less Total Fat than do Livestock Fed on Grain and more of a Kind of Fat they Think is Good for Cardiac Health.
• Like the Grassy Fields and Old Pastures that the Upland Sandpiper needs for Feeding and Nesting when it Returns in May After Wintering in the Argentine Pampas, the Sandpipers Vanishing in the Northeastern United States is a Result of Residential and Industrial Development and of Changes in the Farming Practices.