I had a grammar quiz at the university today.
One of the questions was:
"Great Expectations" ____ by Charles Dickens.
a) is written
b) has been written
c) was written
Undoubtedly, the c option isn't correct since the time (the publication date) isn't stated or implied.
I crossed the a option out because it is neither a general truth nor a law.
It is not a well-known fact to use present simple here.
Finally, I have chosen b. I still have doubts if a is the only right option.
It is unclear to me. Could you clarify it?
Any help would be appreciated.
Best Answer
Actually, depending on context, all three answers are potentially valid. So this is another of those "Guess which answer the teacher is thinking is correct" questions rather than a "Guess the answer that is correct" question. If you have not been told who Charles Dickens is and when he wrote "Great Expectations", then your knowledge of English literature is fairly important to getting it right.
Since the novel was written in 1860 and Dickens is dead, logic suggests that the teacher expects you to use the past tense (as is most common), to talk about a past event:
Otherwise, if it is a new novel and Dickens is still alive, it's not uncommon for English speakers to use the present tense to talk about its creation, especially if the author is present. For example, imagine a radio show on which they discuss contemporary literature
To complicate this, English speakers sometimes use the present tense to focus on the current existence of the novel itself, rather than the action of the writer. In this case "written by Charles Dickens" can be interpreted as a participle phrase:
While this is not common it should not be discounted, since this is how English speakers actually talk, not how they should talk.
Lastly, suppose this sentence is part of a kind of stream-of-consciousness historical narrative:
Again, this is not common, but you should be aware that it's possible in the right context.
In any case, it's a poorly-written question -- but that's not unusual in many English classes, even when the teacher is a native speaker. Yes, (c) is the obvious answer, but a good test question should have one and only one possible answer.