Sentence Correction

69. Once they had seen the report from the medical examiner, the investigators did not doubt whether the body recovered from the river was the man who had attempted to escape from the state prison.

(A) did not doubt whether the body recovered from
the river was
(B) have no doubt whether the body recovered
from the river was
(C) had not doubted that the body recovered from
the river was
(D) have no doubt whether the body recovered
from the river was that of

(E) had no doubt that the body recovered from the
river was that of

Correct choice is E, I selected D. The reason I selected D is because I did not like had in E. Sequence of events - See Medical reports, and then No Doubt. So in time no doubt was after seeing the report, so we should not use had. We can use have because the doubt was cleared in the past and it is just continued affect of the past. This is what MGMAT SC Guide also says.

Any thoughts?

You're looking at it the wrong way. You would use the simple past in that clause because the non-underlined portion of the clause uses the past perfect. In order for a sentence to use the past perfect, you will see the simple past tense in that clause. Ignore the first part of the clause for the purposes of determining the tense in this problem. The end of the sentence says "had attempted to escape" had attempted is the past perfect. In order to use the past perfect you need an event that happened after that event, which in this case would be "had no doubt" because the prisoner attempted to escape before the investigators had no doubt. Hope this helps.

hey Vineet,

This is how I would approach

There is a clear split b/w A,B,C and D,E. i.e. Was vs Was that of

Now, "was that of" is correct.

Between D and E -

D - uses whether creating a change in meaning - indecisiveness

So, E is the best answer.

Once they had seen the report from the medical examiner, the investigators did not doubt whether the body recovered from the river was the man who had attempted to escape from the state prison.

(A) did not doubt whether the body recovered from the river was - Eliminated

(B) have no doubt whether the body recovered from the river was - Eliminated

(C) had not doubted that the body recovered from the river was - Eliminated

(D) have no doubt whether the body recovered from the river was that of - Eliminated

(E) had no doubt that the body recovered from the river was that of - Sentence is in past tense. So this one is CORRECT

All answer choices except (A) are eliminated because of wrong usage of past tense.
When an event is using the past perfect tense, there should be another event using a simple past tense. So, either (A) or (E). However, (E) has the proper use of "doubt" (had no doubt).

Does anyone have a comparable sentence to this? Try as I might, I can't get my head around this.

Didn't the investigators eliminate their doubt after seeing the report? If these two events occurred in that order, why would both verbs need a 'had?'

And moreover, where does 'recovered' fit into this? Did they see the report and eliminate their doubt before or after the body was recovered?

oops - doubled posted by accident

I think we have an issue here regarding the meaning of 'Had' that can work as both helping verb and main verb.
First of all, from the non-underline portion, we understand it is in past tense and more precisely past perfect tense (had seen). So we need an answer choice that is in past tense. B & D out.
Now, C is out because it introduces HAD+doubted (past participle of doubt), this is wrong, we need a simple past tense here to clearly mention the sequence of events.
investigators saw the report ==> doubt was cleared.
(this is in past perfect) (this has to be in simple past)

Also, doubt that is correct idiom, and not doubt whether.
Moreover, in E, had is main verb and NOT HELPING VERB.

Quick tip from Manhattan SC :

"We have no doubt THAT " is the correct idiom

Eg: We have no doubts that the apples are ripe
We donot doubt that the apples are ripe

One exception in GMAT:

DOUBT when used in positive statement without NO or NOT should be followed by whether OR IF.

We doubt whether Jan will arrive on Time

tetura84 wrote:I think we have an issue here regarding the meaning of 'Had' that can work as both helping verb and main verb.
First of all, from the non-underline portion, we understand it is in past tense and more precisely past perfect tense (had seen). So we need an answer choice that is in past tense. B & D out.
Now, C is out because it introduces HAD+doubted (past participle of doubt), this is wrong, we need a simple past tense here to clearly mention the sequence of events.
investigators saw the report ==> doubt was cleared.
(this is in past perfect) (this has to be in simple past)

Also, doubt that is correct idiom, and not doubt whether.
Moreover, in E, had is main verb and NOT HELPING VERB.

Okay, so maybe this is where I'm getting confused. Please tell me if my logic is correct:

The 2nd had (had no doubt) is not a helping verb. Instead it's simply used to state that the investigators possessed no doubt.

On the other hand, the first had (had seen) is helping the verb seen. And then the final had is helping the verb attempted, in order to show that the prisoner attempted to escape before his body was recovered.

Is this an accurate analysis?

michaelfaulkner wrote:
The 2nd had (had no doubt) is not a helping verb. Instead it's simply used to state that the investigators possessed no doubt.

On the other hand, the first had (had seen) is helping the verb seen. And then the final had is helping the verb attempted, in order to show that the prisoner attempted to escape before his body was recovered.

Is this an accurate analysis?

Yes. I am going to save the idea of replacing that verb with another one (like your "possessed") for the next time I have to explain that one.

(E)had no doubt.................

had in here is the simple verb- and had no doubt is not a verb in past perfect ?? m confused ?
can someone break all parts of E for me ?

i understand the answer and the second part parallelism. Just the had in the simple past(and not the past perfect usage) confuses me at times.

Hi @bblast

"Had" is in simple past tense when it is used to convey the meaning of "have" or possess in past tense.

Sam has no doubt in his ability as a singer. - Simple present expressing "possession"
Sam had no doubt in his ability as a singer. - Simple past expressing "possession".

Same sentence can be written with "doubt" as verb:

Sam doubts his ability as a singer. - Simple present
Sam does not doubt his ability as a singer. - Simple present
Sam did not doubt his ability as a singer. - Simple past
Sam has not doubted his ability as a singer. - Present perfect
Sam had not doubted his ability as a singer. - Past perfect

For "had" to be past perfect, you need another verb i.e. a main verb. "had doubted" in this case.

Aman