The present perfect

Notes:

1. (Past simple)  You may have decided that she smoked a cigarette is an action that takes a period of time.  That's OK but the action is seen as taking place at a particular moment in time.  It tells us nothing at all about the present.
2. (Present perfect)  Clearly, the second sentence tell us two things: the action has extended over a period of time and it has extended up to now.  It is also possible but not certain that she will smoke more in the future.  You may have ticked D for this sentence, too.  That's OK, providing you have seen some present relevance.
3. (Past Simple)  The third example tells us two things.  It is completed (and we know when it stopped) and it took place over an extended period of time.  It tells us nothing at all about the present.
4. (Present perfect)  The last example gives us the same kind of information that the second sentence conveys but we know that her action has some relevance to now (perhaps she has determined to give up, perhaps this is her doctor's description of her life style etc.).

comparing the past simple and the present perfect

1. The first difference is that in sentence 1 we know that Jo is no longer living in India but in sentence 2 we would probably assume that she still does (or that her having spent time in India has some relevance to now, for example, she can speak an Indian language, can find her way around an Indian menu, knows about Indian cultures and so on).
2. The second difference is that in sentence 1 Jo is quite possibly a historical character or, sadly, no longer with us but in sentence 2, Jo is certainly alive and may continue living in India into the future.

This distinction between the simple past and the perfect form lies at the heart of the way English conceptualises past time.

the present perfect progressive

We use the progressive aspect with the present perfect to do one of two things:

1. We emphasise the activity over the achievement.  For example:
       I have finished the report
   emphasises that the report is now ready.  It is the achievement that matters and that carries the present relevance (so now you can read it)
       I have been finishing the report
   however, emphasises my activity, not the achievement and it is the activity which is relevant to the present (that's why I'm so late home)
2. We emphasise the recentness of the activity or state and explain the present.  For example:
       I have been running (and I'm hot and tired)
       She has been drinking (and she's not making sense)
       What have you been doing? (to get so dirty, tired, wet etc.)

The sense of an activity focus with the progressive vs. achievement focus with the simple aspect becomes clearer with these examples:

• I have been working
  vs.
  I have worked
  The first of these is comprehensible because the speaker is emphasising the activity.  The second is almost meaningless because we need to know what has been achieved so the sentence needs a complement such as on the report all this week
• She has succeeded
  vs.
  She has been succeeding
  This is the reverse case.  Because the verb succeed implies an achievement, it is usually used with the present perfect simple but the second sentence is meaningless because the verb does not refer to an activity
• I have taken a holiday in France many times
  vs.
  I have been taking a holiday in France
  The first structure can be used with something like many times, twice, often etc. because we are emphasising the achievement (so I now know a little about the country) but the second cannot be used with a term like twice because we are not speaking of an achievement with present relevance but of the activity itself which is probably very recent (and that's why I didn't answer your email)

the key idea The use of the present perfect in English depends on how the event or state is viewed with respect to the present.

and that, of course, explains why it's called the present perfect.

time markers

It is because of the way that we think about past time that each of these tenses is associated with different time markers (not, incidentally, the other way around).  Here's what we mean:

Learners who don't have a good grasp of the concepts here will often produce incorrect sentences such as:
    I have lived here two years ago
    I lived here since 2014
    I did it already*
    I worked up to now
and so on.  This is not usually because they don't understand the time markers, it is usually because they haven't got the concepts of the times right.
* Note that standard American uses this kind of construction frequently, as in things like Did you just arrive? etc.

Getting it the right way round

A number of coursebooks have an annoying habit of presenting learners with long lists (as in the table above) of time phrases to use with past tenses and others to use with the present perfect.  From the list, learners are expected to think something like
"If I am using last week, I must use the past simple"
or
"If I am using since, I must use the present perfect".
That is the wrong way round.
The choice of the appropriate time marker depends on the speaker's perception of time which is represented by the tense structure.
It is not the time marker which determines the tense; it is the speaker's understanding which determines the tense and the tense which determines the appropriate time marker.  To be clear, it does not work like this:

it works like this:

If that is not understood, it is virtually impossible to teach the form, the meaning or the use.