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by sana.noor » Sat Feb 09, 2013 12:06 am
Longtime California highway engineers say that in no period did the Pacific Coast Highway take a worse battering than it did in the winter and spring of 1983, nor was there ever a greater mudslide in the region than the one that occured on May 2,1983.

A) did the Pacific Coast Highway take a worse battering than it did in the winter and spring of 1983, nor

B) had the Pacific Coast Highway taken a worse battering than it did in the winter and spring of 1983, or

C) has the Pacific Coast Highway taken a worse battering than it had in the winter and spring of 1983, or

D) did the Pacific Coast Highway take a worse battering than it had in the winter and spring of 1983, or

E) did the Pacific Coast Highway take a worse battering than it has in the winter and spring of 1983, nor

A
Last edited by sana.noor on Sat Feb 09, 2013 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by GMATGuruNY » Sat Feb 09, 2013 8:15 am
sana.noor wrote:Longtime California highway engineers say that in no period did the Pacific Coast Highway take a worse battering than it did in the winter and spring of 1983, nor was there ever a greater mudslide in the region than the one that occured on May 2,1983.

A) did the Pacific Coast Highway take a worse battering than it did in the winter and spring of 1983, nor

B) had the Pacific Coast Highway taken a worse battering than it did in the winter and spring of 1983, or

C) has the Pacific Coast Highway taken a worse battering than it had in the winter and spring of 1983, or

D) did the Pacific Coast Highway take a worse battering than it had in the winter and spring of 1983, or

E) did the Pacific Coast Highway take a worse battering than it has in the winter and spring of 1983, nor

A
The perfect tenses (has + VERBed and had + VERBed) CANNOT serve to express an action that took place at a SPECIFIC MOMENT in time.
The SC above is comparing how the Pacific Coast Highway took a beating IN 1983 with how it took a beating in OTHER PERIODS.
Since these actions occurred at particular moments in time, the perfect tenses are not appropriate.
Eliminate the following:
B: in no period HAD the Pacific Coast Highway TAKEN
C: in no period HAS the Pacific Coast Highway TAKEN
D: than it HAD [taken} in the winter and spring of 1983
E: than it HAS [taken] in the winter and spring of 1983.

The correct answer is A.
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by gmat4fun » Sat Feb 09, 2013 10:35 am
Sana,

GMATGuruNY has summed the usage of perfect tenses pretty well. I did this one similarly.

However, do not loose heart if you are not quite a grammar person. Take a clue from the non-underlined portion of the sentence i.e. (was there ever a greater mudslide in the region than the one that occurred on May 2, 1983.)

This part is in simple past. To express the idea in a parallel way, the underlined portion is most likely to follow similar pattern i.e. simple past. Only option A does that.

Please let me know if you had any specific question that remained unanswered either by GMATGuruNY or me.

Cheers!
Last edited by gmat4fun on Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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by sana.noor » Sat Feb 09, 2013 9:27 pm
Is their any site, link or blog that explains the usuage of tenses well!!
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