Since

[CW Tan]

Hi teachers,

I read the following sentence in other forum, but I still dont understand why "since" in the sentence is wrong.

What is wrong with the following sentence?

: Since the plant neared completion, management began making preparations
: for its opening. :
: A. Since
: B. completion
: C. management
: D. its

The answer is A. ---- I dont know why "since" is wrong. Could you please explain?

Thank you very much in advance.

[Pete]

Hi teachers,

I read the following sentence in other forum, but I still dont understand why "since" in the sentence is wrong.

What is wrong with the following sentence?

: Since the plant neared completion, management began making preparations
: for its opening. :
: A. Since
: B. completion
: C. management
: D. its

The answer is A. ---- I dont know why "since" is wrong. Could you please explain?

Thank you very much in advance.
The word "since" seems to define a period of time that extends from the time mentioned until the present. Such a period would go with a present perfect verb in the main clause, but this sentence uses the simple past, "began". With that verb, the adverbial clause should define a point in time, not a period of time. I'd suggest,
- When the plant neared completion, …

[CW Tan]

Hi teacher,

Thank you very much for your kind reply. As "since" has some other meaning similar to "because" and "as", if we just applied that meaning to the sentence, doesn't it also sound natural?

Since (because or as) the plant neared completion, management began making preparations.

Thank you very much again in advance.

[Pete]

Hi teacher,

Thank you very much for your kind reply. As "since" has some other meaning similar to "because" and "as", if we just applied that meaning to the sentence, doesn't it also sound natural?

Since (because or as) the plant neared completion, management began making preparations.

Thank you very much again in advance.That is a good point. I'm actually not certain why, but with the conjunction "because", or "since" or "as" meaning the same as "because", the subordinate clause doesn't sound right to me with the simple past. With that meaning, the natural sentence would be:
- Since/Because/As the plant was nearing completion, management began making preparations.