William Shakespeare, though long considered as being one of the finest writers in English or any other language, was the subject of speculation over the years that he was not the real author of works attributed by him.

· William Shakespeare, though long considered as being one of the finest writers in English or any other language, was the subject of speculation over the years that he was not the real author of works attributed by him.

· William Shakespeare, though long considered as one of the finest writers in English or any other language, has been the subject of speculation over the years that he was not the real author of works attributed to him.

· William Shakespeare, though long considered to be one of the finest writers in English or any other language, was the subject of speculation over the years that he was not the real author of works attributed to him.

· William Shakespeare, though long considered one of the finest writers in English or any other language, has been the subject of speculation over the years that he was not the real author of works attributed to him.

· William Shakespeare, though long considered to be one of the finest writers in English, was over the years the subject of speculation that he had not been the real author of works attributed by him.

explanation
The original sentence contains the unidiomatic "considered as being". The correct idiom is simply "considered", as in "I considered you a friend." Also, "was the subject...over the years" is incorrect. It should be "has been the subject...", since the speculation began in the past and continues to the present. Finally, "attributed by" is not idiomatic here. It should be "attributed to."
The only choice to remedy all these issues is D.

I think C is right answer.....
if speculation began in the past and continues to the present then the sentence should end in has been the subject of speculation over the years that he is not the real author of works attributed to him.

Leaves me confused too

Please can someone help
I am waiting for a resolution

Thanks
Vishal

hmm, yeah, this one is problematic.

i'm with you guys here. the original sentence contains was, and there definitely isn't enough evidence to conclude that the speculation continues into the present.

i'll call attention to this one.

IMO D. Consider as/ to be are incorrect.

D is the best in one sense (because the others contain specific grammatical errors), but as Ron mentioned before, D is problematic because it changes the tense and the sentence doesn't give a really compelling reason to change the tense. I've forwarded to our curriculum director for review.

Remember that grammar always trumps slight changes in meaning - if you see something like this on the real test, use grammar first. (It won't happen often, but every now and then, I do find something with which I feel I can argue on the real test!)

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT

Thanks for the explanation of the Shakespeare conundrum Stacey - I'll be interested in hearing what the curriculum director has to say!

Thanks for calling this to our attention. :-)

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Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor