"It __ a week since the exams began" (was, is, has been, had been)

Question

It was a week since the exams began

a) It is a week
b) It has been a week
c) It had been a week
d) No improvement

Answer on a website cites that option A is right. I feel its wrong. What`s the correct option?

All four answers could be correct, depending upon context. – Chenmunka Jan 18 '16 at 13:06 — Chenmunka, Jan 18 '16 at 13:06
What would be your preferred choice, Shweta? – CowperKettle Jan 18 '16 at 13:09 — CowperKettle, Jan 18 '16 at 13:09
What difference would it make if he/she said,
CowperKettle? – user1425 Nov 22 '22 at 14:21 — user1425, Nov 22 '22 at 14:21

Ben Kovitz · Answer 1 · 2016-01-19T17:55:39.830

All four choices are grammatically correct. There are subtle differences among them regarding tense and emphasis.

I think it would be difficult and confusing to explain the differences abstractly. So, I'll just invent a little story for each answer in which that answer is most appropriate. I'm removing "the" to make this a little easier. In this context, "exams" with no article refers to the administration of exams at the end of a school semester.

(a) 5/18/16 Dear diary, It is a week since exams began. Already the anxieties of the semester are long forgotten, replaced by greater worries for my friends in Verdun.

(b) "Higginbotham, how can you even think of handing in a paper so late?" bellowed Prof. Silverwood. "It has been a week since exams began! The semester is officially over. Making an exception for you now would be unfair to all the other students." Higginbotham hunched quietly in a small chair, averting his eyes from Silverwood's.

(c) Glendenning awoke a little after noon. Slowly he brushed his teeth. Slowly he smoked a cigarette. It had been a week since exams began. It was all over. No week before in his life had he slept so little, nor read so much, nor spent himself so fully, nor earned such glory. Though he had yet to see his grades, he felt like Julius Caesar after the Battle of Alesia—a subject on which Glendenning was now something of an expert.

(d) It was a dark and stormy night. It was Sunday. It was a week since exams began. Prof. Eagleton paced the creaky wooden floor of his office, eyeing the clock, awaiting the deadline for the last blue examination booklet to be pushed through the slot in his door. It was five minutes to midnight.

I don't know why the web site said that only (a) is right. There is a lot of bogus information about English on the Internet, in textbooks, and in classrooms. Many people teaching English don't know English very well themselves. Even for a native speaker, designing exam questions is hard. People often neglect the true flexibility of English grammar when attempting to design a question with only one right answer.

@user1425 "It was a Sunday" is grammatically correct, but it puts strong emphasis on the day of the week. In ordinary English usage, days of the week can function as adverbs, e.g. "Sunday, I ate brunch with Nancy." More in this answer. — Ben Kovitz, Nov 23 '22 at 20:15
Well, I thought SUNDAY was the closes SUNDAY and a SUNDAY was some other SUNDAY — user1425, Nov 24 '22 at 04:55
@user1425 Usually yes, but in the above example no, because the event happened long ago. This would make a good new question. — Ben Kovitz, Nov 24 '22 at 15:51
What is the criterion for "long ago"? Is 5 years long ago? If yes, Is 4.5 years long ago? — user1425, Nov 25 '22 at 05:19
@user1425 It's an indeterminate amount of time ago. This should be covered in a good answer to a separate question. — Ben Kovitz, Nov 25 '22 at 11:38

"It __ a week since the exams began" (was, is, has been, had been)

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