Error spotting — Identify the erroneous segment (A/B/C) or mark D for no error: 'Last month we celebrated / the wedding of our sister for whom / we have been looking for a suitable alliance for three years. / No error.' Check tense sequencing with past time markers and eliminate tense inconsistency.
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ALast month we celebrated
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Bthe wedding of our sister for whom
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Cwe have been looking for a suitable alliance for three years.
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DNo error.
Answer
Correct Answer: we have been looking for a suitable alliance for three years.
Explanation
Given data
- A: Last month we celebrated
- B: the wedding of our sister for whom
- C: we have been looking for a suitable alliance for three years.
- D: No error.
Concept/Approach (sequence of tenses)The adverbial 'Last month' fixes a finished past time. Any ongoing action that led up to that past point should be expressed with the past perfect (progressive): 'had been looking' (not present perfect progressive 'have been looking').
Step-by-step correctionC: 'we have been looking … for three years' → 'we had been looking … for three years'.Corrected sentence: 'Last month we celebrated the wedding of our sister for whom we had been looking for a suitable alliance for three years.'
NoteYou may also streamline the relative clause to avoid repetitive 'for': '…our sister for whom we had been looking a suitable alliance …'; exam focus remains tense.
Final AnswerC — Replace with 'had been looking' to match 'Last month'.