Could you please tell me the difference between these two sentences?
1. The article began:'Hundreds of steps lead to the high wall which surrounds the president's palace.'

2. However, he had at last been allowed to send a fax in which he informed the editor that he had been arrested while counting the 1084 steps leading to the fifteen-foot wall which surrounded the president's palace.

Why the writer uses "surrounds" in the first sentence, and uses "surrounded" in the second sentence. Are they all correct? Or there is a difference between them?

Question

Could you please tell me the difference between these two sentences?
1. The article began:'Hundreds of steps lead to the high wall which surrounds the president's palace.'

2. However, he had at last been allowed to send a fax in which he informed the editor that he had been arrested while counting the 1084 steps leading to the fifteen-foot wall which surrounded the president's palace.

Why the writer uses "surrounds" in the first sentence, and uses "surrounded" in the second sentence. Are they all correct? Or there is a difference between them?

Answer

In number 2., you could use both "surrounded" or "surround" if the situation is still true at the time of speaking.  However, the text is about a past time and the writer may not be sure of the current situation. The writer knows for sure that at the past time he is writing about, the wall surrounded.

Answers · 2

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