Kaplan SC on Municipal will

Expert replies

prachich1987: Legendary Member; Posts: 752; Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:47 amFollowed by: 10 members; Thanked: 20 times; GMAT Score:700

by prachich1987 » Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:42 am

The below SC is from Kaplan CAT.
I am aware that it was discussed earlier on BTG.But there was no consensus over answer.
So I thought I will put a fresh post.

San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angeles a world city, yet within twenty years a powerful municipal will had made this boast a reality .

yet within twenty years a powerful municipal will had made this boast a reality
yet within twenty years a powerful municipal will made this boast a reality
yet a powerful municipal within twenty years will make this boast a reality
yet this boast had become a reality within twenty years because of a powerful will municipally
yet within twenty years a municipal will had made this boast a powerful reality

[spoiler]The OA given by Kaplan is A.
isn't the sentence saying that in 1980s Friscans mocked the claim...and then twenty years later the will made the boast a reality...i.e. the "reality" part happened after the mocking...
if so, we would NOT require the past perfect. [/spoiler]

Last edited by prachich1987 on Sat Jan 08, 2011 11:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:42 am

jaxis: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 101; Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:33 am; Thanked: 5 times

by jaxis » Sat Jan 08, 2011 11:15 pm

Prachi,

Option E is definitely wrong. It alters intent.

I think A is the OA as per Kaplan.

We need past participle because two past events are being discussed(past perfect tense).one is placed relative to other on the time line.

prachich1987: Legendary Member; Posts: 752; Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:47 amFollowed by: 10 members; Thanked: 20 times; GMAT Score:700

by prachich1987 » Sat Jan 08, 2011 11:22 pm

jaxis wrote:Prachi,

Option E is definitely wrong. It alters intent.

I think A is the OA as per Kaplan.

We need past participle because two past events are being discussed(past perfect tense).one is placed relative to other on the time line.

jaxis, it was a typo error.
I edited the above post.
My doubt is that the underlined part of the sentence happened after the non-underlined part happened.
Then how can the second part use past perfect?

jaxis: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 101; Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:33 am; Thanked: 5 times

by jaxis » Sat Jan 08, 2011 11:36 pm

I think its not important what action happened before or after.But what action is taken as base.

Here 'San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked' is the base. and 'within twenty years a powerful municipal will ' is being discussed relatively to the base part.

Lets try this on an example:

He had bought a flat before he got married.

Her the base is 'Marriage' which happened in the past.Now 'buying flat' happened before 'Marriage'

Marriage :the base

Before: relation with the base

buying flat : the action that is relative to the base (and hence needs past participle).
.

mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Sun Jan 09, 2011 12:46 am

jaxis wrote:I think its not important what action happened before or after.But what action is taken as base.

Here 'San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked' is the base. and 'within twenty years a powerful municipal will ' is being discussed relatively to the base part.

Lets try this on an example:

He had bought a flat before he got married.

Her the base is 'Marriage' which happened in the past.Now 'buying flat' happened before 'Marriage'

Marriage :the base

Before: relation with the base

buying flat : the action that is relative to the base (and hence needs past participle).
.

The past perfect is used only when it is absolutely necessary and that too when it used in the context of another event to show what happened first.In this case the time line has been defined and the "had" is unnecessary .I agree qith prachi.I think prachi should refer this quest to an expert.

jaxis: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 101; Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:33 am; Thanked: 5 times

by jaxis » Sun Jan 09, 2011 1:34 am

i guess im wrong.

i found a kap expert explaination here.:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/past-perfect-t55356.html

jaxis: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 101; Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:33 am; Thanked: 5 times

by jaxis » Sun Jan 09, 2011 2:19 am

Here is a simlar Gmatprep question (which uses past participle in an event that happens after some thing in past.- but its use is not being tested here).

https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-prep-6-t72859.html

Tani: Legendary Member; Posts: 1255; Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 2:08 pmFollowed by: 90 members; Location: St. Louis; Thanked: 312 times

by Tani » Sun Jan 09, 2011 3:25 pm

I would go with "had made", because the process of making the will a reality happened over a period of 20 years. Past perfect implies that something happened over a period of time, and not at a single point in time.

Tani Wolff

prachich1987: Legendary Member; Posts: 752; Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:47 amFollowed by: 10 members; Thanked: 20 times; GMAT Score:700

by prachich1987 » Sun Jan 09, 2011 8:52 pm

Tani Wolff - Kaplan wrote:I would go with "had made", because the process of making the will a reality happened over a period of 20 years. Past perfect implies that something happened over a period of time, and not at a single point in time.

Thanks Tani!

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