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The Vietnamese artist exhibiting work in...

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The Vietnamese artist exhibiting work in...

by gmat1978 » Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:12 pm
The Vietnamese artist exhibiting work in United States reported that one of her artistic challenges had been the former widespread unavailability of paper and canvas in wartime, which she said often forced her to work on matchboxes and scrapes of newsprint.

a) her artistic challenges had been the former
b) her artistic challenges had been the formerly
c) her artistic challenges is the former
d) their artistic challenges is the former
e) their artistic challenges had been the former

I am confused between choice a and b. Please help with explanations.

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by Target2009 » Sun Apr 03, 2011 5:02 pm
gmat1978 wrote: I am confused between choice a and b. Please help with explanations.
IMO : A

Adjective "Formerly" will modify the noun widespread which is not correct. So we need Noun "Former"
Whats OA?
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by gmat1978 » Sun Apr 03, 2011 5:11 pm
OA is A. However, I think widespread is an adjective that can be modified by an adverb. So, why can't formerly, an adverb, modify widespread?

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Target2009 wrote:
gmat1978 wrote: I am confused between choice a and b. Please help with explanations.
IMO : A

Adjective "Formerly" will modify the noun widespread which is not correct. So we need Noun "Former"
Whats OA?
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by Tani » Sun Apr 03, 2011 6:37 pm
This one is unclear. "Former" is an adjective and would have to modify the noun "unavailability". "Formerly" is an adverb and would therefore modify the adjective "widespread". "Formerly widespread" would mean that the unavailability used to be widespread, but is not widespread any longer. "Former widespread unavailability" would imply that the author wants to distinguish between widespread unavailability that happened in the past and current widespread unavailability. While the first alternative is more likely, we do not have anything in the sentence to tell us which is meant.
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by vidhya16 » Sat Apr 09, 2011 12:51 am
I have a doubt with the verb tense (had been) ... does is act as past perfect or passive voice?.. If it is past perfect... why simple past verb is not used. Can some on explain?
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by Tani » Sat Apr 09, 2011 3:06 am
The verb is past perfect because it refers to something that went on for a period of time in the past (the challenge), but that stopped before another action in the past "reported".
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by vidhya16 » Sat Apr 09, 2011 5:19 am
Thanks Tania.
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