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The security expert assured the CTO that the confidential information has not been compromised.

(A) has not been
(B) is not
(C) will not be
(D) was not
(E) will not have been

[spoiler]The OA is D. However I have my doubts about the answer.

Here is my reasoning. We have two actions in the past 1-expert "assured" the CTO and 2-information was compromised. When there are two actions in the past and one of them occurred earlier, the earlier event/action would need "had" right? So IMO "was not" is incorrect.

However, in GMAT we have to choose the best answer and not necessarily the perfect answer. So this seems ok. But wait, look at option C "will not be". It can imply that the expert assured (in the past) the CTO that information will not be (in future) compromised. When referring to future actions from the past, "would" is accepted to be the right verb. But for will/would difference, C looks ok.

Now my question. Both C, D are not perfectly correct. In such a case, how does one pick the choice that is more perfect than the other.
[/spoiler]

Any help from the experts will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
-- Santhosh S
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by VivianKerr » Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:26 pm
In an ideal world, it would say "had not been" since I'd like to believe the potential compromising occurred even further back in the past than "assured."

What wouldn't make sense is any kind of present tense, so A and B are out.

Out of the remaining, we have C, D and E and E is obviously wordy/awkward.

Between C and D, what information do we have to assume this is the future tense? The "assured" most likely indicates that this is also going to be past.

I agree there is some ambiguity here, but I challenge you to find an actual GMAT question that comes down to something like this. If you see this again, just go with the parallel tense seen earlier in the sentence.
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by santhoshsram » Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:50 pm
Thanks Vivian.
-- Santhosh S

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by [email protected] » Sat Jan 07, 2012 10:08 pm
But Vivian, I have a doubt on this particular question...
Usually assurance is given for the future event to occur or not to occur. Eg: The government gives
assurance that the terrorist attacks will not happen in the future whenever there has occured one.
So logically and meaningfully the answer should be C. According to me option D is completely irrevelant. Please help me in sorting my doubt in this particular question....
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by ArunangsuSahu » Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:46 am
(D)...is the Correct

(C) needed would

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