Sentence Correction

Hi All
This is Question no 74 from OG 12.

A 1972 agreement between Canada & United States reduced the amount of phosphates that municipalities had been allowed to dump into the Great lakes.

(A) reduced the amount of phosphates that municipalities had been allowed to dump

(B) reduced the phosphate amount that municipalities had been dumping

(C) reduces the phosphate amount municipalities have been allowed to dump

(D) reduced the amount of phosphates that municipalities are allowed to dump

(E) reduces the amount of phosphates allowed for dumping by municipalities

OA is D. Logic seems convoluted. According to me, A seems to be the right choice as it has the earlier of the past event in past perfect tense while the later event of agreement in the simple past.

D is correct. (As that agreement is still valid and still municipalities follow the regulation..)
Thus the effect: amount municipalities are allowed to dump is still reduced..

Thanks Can
If the original sentence were to say

"A 1972 meeting between Canada & United States cancelled the agreement that had allowed municipalities to dump garbage into the great lakes".

Would this be ok, as in this case agreement was cancelled at some past date and the past perfect tense is being used to describe a earlier practice?

[email protected] wrote:Thanks Can
If the original sentence were to say

"A 1972 meeting between Canada & United States cancelled the agreement that had allowed municipalities to dump garbage into the great lakes".

Would this be ok, as in this case agreement was cancelled at some past date and the past perfect tense is being used to describe a earlier practice?

i agree with cans
also, your 2nd sentence is correct since canceling the agreement happened after allowance of dumping the garbage ==> had allowed is earlier action and past perfect and "canceled" is later action and simple past

The second one is correct according to me...

what is OA?

Great discussion, guys! Cans' explanation of D is perfect, but let me add this to what's wrong with A:

You can't retroactively limit how much municipalities were previously allowed to dump. A is illogical - you can't pass a law that says "remember five years ago? You weren't allowed to dump 1,000 gallons...now it's only 500 gallons that you were allowed back then." And that's what choice A says - that the 1972 agreement reduced previous amounts of dumping. The past perfect puts the reduction before 1972, and that's just not logical if you think about the timeline.

IMO: D

Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:Great discussion, guys! Cans' explanation of D is perfect, but let me add this to what's wrong with A:

You can't retroactively limit how much municipalities were previously allowed to dump. A is illogical - you can't pass a law that says "remember five years ago? You weren't allowed to dump 1,000 gallons...now it's only 500 gallons that you were allowed back then." And that's what choice A says - that the 1972 agreement reduced previous amounts of dumping. The past perfect puts the reduction before 1972, and that's just not logical if you think about the timeline.

Hi Brian is this the sort of question that we are expecting in the gmat now onwards

cans wrote:D is correct. (As that agreement is still valid and still municipalities follow the regulation..)
Thus the effect: amount municipalities are allowed to dump is still reduced..

Reduction is a 1 time action . the present tense in D is usually used when the action is a general truth

Guys sorry for poking in my nose again on the gmat forums :mrgreen: . But I just cant forget the funny name "Bufo marinous toads !!" . Here is an official question testing something similar.


https://gmatclub.com/forum/sc-bufo-marin ... 47028.html

bblast wrote:Guys sorry for poking in my nose again on the gmat forums :mrgreen: . But I just cant forget the funny name "Bufo marinous toads !!" . Here is an official question testing something similar.


https://gmatclub.com/forum/sc-bufo-marin ... 47028.html

bblast whats the logic ?
In that question past tense + noun + modifier is used .
Between A and D , whats different is the tense in the modifier . had been & are .

Whats the difference between the following 2 sentences
Canada had been allowed to dump 10 tonnes of phosphates .

Canada are allowed to dump 10 tonnes of phosphates .

sorry for the late reply mundasingh. But the issue in the toad question is that if we use had been, we will end up conveying the meaning that the toads are no longer native to place X{ and thus instead end up being native to some other place}. This is a technical blunder. The kangaroo is native to Australia, its gonna stay that way forever no matter what.

bblast wrote:sorry for the late reply mundasingh. But the issue in the toad question is that if we use had been, we will end up conveying the meaning that the toads are no longer native to place X{ and thus instead end up being native to some other place}. This is a technical blunder. The kangaroo is native to Australia, its gonna stay that way forever no matter what.

could you explain How do we apply the same logic to this question