something missing in test

[Manko]

Business Idiom in English, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #97 "Letter of Complaint (4)", question 6

From the end of May until August I have been away on business and was surprised that ......... that period

(a) while
(b) attending
(c) from
(d) during

Business Idiom in English, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #97 "Letter of Complaint (4)", answer 6

From the end of May until August I have been away on business and was surprised that during that period

Correct answer: (d) during
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want to know the answer?

Manko

[lost_soul]

Incidentally, the sentence seems to be missing something after was surprised that ... during that period Surprised what?
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Alex

A native speaker of Russian

[Yankee]

Hi Alex

In this test, you have to look at both question 6 and question 7 to get the complete sentence.

What I see as problems:

- The use of the present perfect sounds just awful to me in the context of questions 6 and 7. Would a Brit actually use the present perfect that way?

- I would also like to know why in the world "the end of my rope" is considered incorrect in question 8. Saying "at the end of my rope" is just fine in my book!

(I will withhold judgment on the use of shall in question 10.)
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Yankee]

.
In view of the fact that the test sentence refers to a definite past time (underlined), I would suggest two small changes in questions 6 and 7 as follows (in blue):

From the end of May until August I was away on business and was surprised that during that period no effort was made to write to me and keep me up to date.

I realize that the use of the present perfect in American English differs somewhat from the use in British English. Nevertheless, I do not feel the present perfect is justified in the sentence above.

Please note that my first post reflected my subjective reaction to the tense usage -- in other words, it might be seen as "descriptive" grammar. This post reflects "prescriptive" grammar. In this case, both descriptive and prescriptive grammar seem to support the same thing: the tense needs to be changed.
.
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English