Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[sejpdw]

"When people began to settle in grouops and farm the land, they needed containers for storing grain and other crops. People had already noticed that clay can be shaped when it is wet and sticky and that it bakes when it is heated. They used this discovery to build houses with mud bricks baked in the sun, and they soon also began to make simple clay artifacts. Most early art (A)portrays animals, but some statues of women have been found as well. The most famous of these are the "Venus" figures that are all fat, with large *beep*, a rounded stomach, and massive thighs. Taking this into consideration, prehistoric man's idea of female beauty
(B)seemed to be a fat, curvaceous figure, or maybe these figures (C)are meant to represent goddesses."

I think
(A) "portrays" should be corrected with "portrayed"
(B) "seemed to be" with "seems to have been"
(C) "are meant" with " were meant"

What's your opinion?

[ESL-ish]

This is a great example of how grammar is part of expression, not just a bunch of mechanical rules.

The problem is that these art objects exist now. So if the speaker believes that art carries meaning independent of its creator, he/she would most naturally say, "Most early art portrays..." The art still exists, so it still continues to portray.

If the art no longer exists ( for example, the stone Buddahs destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan) then we would use the past tense.
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