求教：有关形容词副词修饰和定语从句的一道题

moniquelove

Reporting that one of its many problems had been the recent extended sales slump in women’s apparel, the seven-store retailer said it would start a three month liquidation sale in all of its stores.
(A) its many problems had been the recent
(B) its many problems has been the recently
(C) its many problems is the recently
(D) their many problems is the recent
(E) their many problems had been the recent

正确答案是A
但是recent 可以修饰extended吗？不是应该用副词recently吗？我去一个外国的gmat论坛看，有个牛人这样解释“It's illogical to say "recently extended slump" since this would imply that the slump was extended by someone/something. Though it's somewhat of a subtle error in meaning, we could assume that the business would be working in its best interest and would not intentionally extend the slump it's experiencing. ”那到底是有问题还是没问题？
还有 the seven-store retailer said it would start a three month liquidation sale in all of its stores 定语从句的that不是不能省略吗？
请指教！

moniquelove

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moniquelove

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