Does the word ‘remain’ without its other forms always refer to the present?

Question

Me and a friend are analysing some dialogue within a story and are debating the implications of a certain phrase. Consider below scenario:

Person B is the fastest man in the world. Although now he’s older and unwell, in reputation he’s still regard as the fastest.

After a long time of going untested, he displays his speed once again to the public.

Person B who is a spectator, after watching the display says: “What a slowpoke! The man who I remember as the fastest would never be this person that I see in front of me now!!”

Persona A replies: “ I’m just a human. I can’t remain the fastest forever. You expect too much of me.”

End of Scenario.

So within the above context, is person A still claiming to be the fastest because he used the word ‘remain’? Or is he admitting that he’s not the fastest anymore? Or is it still ambiguous?

Answer 1

What is ambiguous to me is the labeling of Person A and Person B here. I'll assume that the person regarded as fastest in the world is Person A (not B, as stated at the beginning). Assuming that's the case, there is really no ambiguity here. Person A is admitting he is not as fast as he used to be. In the most literal reading of this, he doesn't actually address whether he is still THE FASTEST person in the world or not, but he is certainly not actively claiming to be.

I think it's worth generalizing to other kinds of text. To me, this is a pretty clear scenario, and only a reader who brings a specific preconceived idea to this reading would think otherwise. But often, I find that on exams, students begin to overanalyze reading passages or even simple questions and introduce confusion when the passage or question is actually pretty clear. In those situations, a good approach is to step back and consider what the simplest explanation/interpretation is. It's usually the right one.

Answer 2

I would say that the speaker in this scenario is implying that he can be beat since he's past his peak in his running career so he's not being ambiguous in his wording.

Also, feel free to reach out to me directly if you need further assistance.