Roman Empire

[divuu.verma]

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire remains a topic of vigorous debate to this day; historians have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and widespread immorality.

1. have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military
insurrection, ethnic conflict, and
2. attribute it variously to causes that include military
insurrection,ethnic conflict, or
3. have variously attributed them to causes which include military
insurrection, ethnic conflict, and
4. attribute them to various causes, including military insurrection,
ethnic conflict, as well as
5. variously attribute them to causes including military
insurrection, ethnic conflict, and

Confusion - The decline and fall of the Roman empire - How can this phrase be singular.The usage of and between the decline and Fall suggests that its a plural construction.

Please clarify!

Thanks in Advance.

[tim]

sometimes two words go together to such an extent that they are treated as a single concept. for instance, steak and eggs is my favorite breakfast. donny and marie is the best act in vegas (it's not really, but you get the idea)..

[divuu.verma]

Ok - I take it as a new learning.

Thanks for the reply !

[tim]

glad to hear it!

[vinny4nyc]

I got the answer by eliminations.

A question though:

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire remains a topic of vigorous debate to this day; historians have attributed it to a variety of causes, including military insurrection, ethnic conflict, and widespread immorality.

Would not "historians attribute it to a ...."

make more sense? Simple present instead of Present Perfect.

The first part of the sentece before the semi colon is in simple perfect .

[tim]

you're going about sentence correction the wrong way. you should not be asking whether something would make more sense; you should ask whether there is something WRONG with the option you are given..

[vinny4nyc]

you're going about sentence correction the wrong way. you should not be asking whether something would make more sense; you should ask whether there is something WRONG with the option you are given..

Roger... I just wanted to know about the tenses part... i am really having trouble with it.

Cheers

[jnelson0612]

you're going about sentence correction the wrong way. you should not be asking whether something would make more sense; you should ask whether there is something WRONG with the option you are given..

Roger... I just wanted to know about the tenses part... i am really having trouble with it.

Cheers

Hi vinny,
In this case the present perfect "have attributed" is not wrong; from a point in the past until the present the historians have attributed . . . . They have done so in the past and continue to do so today.

Check out also that the sentence says that the rise and fall "remains a topic of vigorous debate to this day". This indicates that this started in the past and continues to this day, giving additional support to the use of the present perfect.

In this sentence you have bigger problems in the other answers, so this is an acceptable answer choice.

[ShriramS370]

Doesn't the use of it make the sentence a fragment?

[tim]

Which sentence are you referring to (please write the entire sentence), and what makes you think it's a fragment?