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Stenka25 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Why past tense?
The below is a story of Charles Dickens misunderstanding statistics. In the last sentence, I cannot, however hard I try, figure out why he used that PAST PERFECT & PAST tense. It seems that PRESENT PERFECT (have not been filed) & PRESENT (are) should be used because the sentence is in the quotation marks, which means the sentence is trying to convey the moment of his comment, I mean, PRESENT TENSE.
Am I right?
Should we conclude that driving is faster and safer than walking and therefore that all pedestrians should be forced into cars? Charles Dickens made a point about how absurd it was to misinterpret numbers associated with risk by refusing to ride the train. One day late in December, the story goes, Dickens announced that he couldn’t travel by train any more that year. He said, “The average annual quota of railroad accidents in Britain had not been filled and therefore further disasters were obviously imminent.”
Am I right?
Should we conclude that driving is faster and safer than walking and therefore that all pedestrians should be forced into cars? Charles Dickens made a point about how absurd it was to misinterpret numbers associated with risk by refusing to ride the train. One day late in December, the story goes, Dickens announced that he couldn’t travel by train any more that year. He said, “The average annual quota of railroad accidents in Britain had not been filled and therefore further disasters were obviously imminent.”
Top answer
Hi, I agree with you. I think it likely that the quote is not accurate, or else has been taken out of some special context. The writer seems to be mixing up direct and indirect speech.
- Hi, I agree with you.
- I think it likely that the quote is not accurate, or else has been taken out of some special context.
- The writer seems to be mixing up direct and indirect speech.
- Clive
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2 Answers
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Hi,
I agree with you.
I think it likely that the quote is not accurate, or else has been taken out of some special context. The writer seems to be mixing up direct and indirect speech.
Clive
I agree with you.
I think it likely that the quote is not accurate, or else has been taken out of some special context. The writer seems to be mixing up direct and indirect speech.
Clive
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No, the reference point of time is not the time of his statement (in which case the present perfect/present combination would be correct) but the time when he stopped travelling by train.
The average annual quota of railroad accidents in Britain had not been filled (up to the point of time when he stopped travelling by train) and therefore further disasters were obvi
The average annual quota of railroad accidents in Britain had not been filled (up to the point of time when he stopped travelling by train) and therefore further disasters were obvi
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