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plants and animal species

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by mberkowitz » Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:53 pm
the number of plant and animal species that [humans are known to have forced to extinction] in the last half millennium is over 800.
1) humans are known to have forced to extinction
2) humans are known as having forced to become extinct
3)humans are known for forcing to become extinct
4) are known that humans forced to become extinct
5) are known as having been forced to extinction by humans.

OA is A[spoiler]



I think you can weed BCD out very easily.
regarding the difference bw A and E, is A better because its more concise?
I thought E because I feel A is borderline passive.

thoughts?[/spoiler]
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by stop@800 » Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:55 am
E: weird

"known as having been forced" is incorrect

known to is the correct usage here
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by aflaam » Wed Feb 10, 2016 3:27 pm
I am stumped here,
Can someone help with this one?
thanks
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by aflaam » Fri Feb 12, 2016 4:07 pm
Can some one help me with this one.
Appreciate your consideration
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by fabiocafarelli » Tue Feb 16, 2016 4:07 am
1. Just in regard to what you say about 'borderline passive': there really is no such thing. A verb is in either the Active Voice or the Passive Voice.

2. Option E can be discarded because the clause species that are known as having been forced is unidiomatic - and very clumsy. KNOWN AS is fine in itself, but it is followed by a noun or a noun phrase, not by the construction used here: HAVING BEEN FORCED. The noun or noun phrase in question is often of a descriptive kind, a sort of title. Thus, a certain person could be known as The Plant Lover, a certain building could be known as The Refuge, and a certain geological formation could be known as Deathtrap Valley.

3. A is good not because it is more precise, exactly, but because the structure of the clause that humans are known to have forced to extinction expresses in its grammar and syntax a coherent idea. TO KNOW is one of those peculiar verbs in English that can be used with this passive construction: others are TO THINK, TO BELIEVE, TO SEE, TO SAY, and so on. Thus, HUMANS ARE KNOWN. This passive construction is always followed by a form of the infinitive. If the following verb has to refer to a time before the time in which HUMANS ARE KNOWN, it must take the form of the perfect infinitive: here, TO HAVE FORCED. In other words, humans are known in the present to have forced, in a time before the present, certain species into extinction.

Sentences using the verbs that can be followed by this kind of construction appear fairly often in the GMAT.

Hoping this will clear things up.

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