I have a question from a textbook.
①Are you OK? You look as if you have been crying.
②Are you OK? You look as if you have cried.
①The children are tired now. They have been playing in the garden.
②The children are tired now. They have played in the garden.
The textbook says that ① is correct.
Why is ② incorrect?
I don't know why.
Please teach me.
@Akira1108 To me the wrong answers don't sound totally incorrect, but they definitely sound awkward. I think it's because they are giving reasons for the first parts (you don't look okay, the children are tired), and a big part of the reasons is time. The person who doesn't look okay has probably been crying for a while, not just a single tear and done. The children probably played in the garden a while, rather than tossing a ball once and going inside. 'have been' gives that feeling of time.
@aafd Thank you for teaching me.
The textbook says that when we use present perfect simple, we are thinking about the result of the activity, not the activity itself.
I had the following idea.
①have cried →You finished crying, and your eyes became red as a result.
①have played→they finished playing and they got tired as a result.
Hmm. I'm still not sure.
