Sentence Correction

80. Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.

A) that flourished at the same time as the civilizations
B )that had flourished at the same time as had the civilizations
C )that flourished at the same time those had D )flourishing at the same time as those did
E) flourishing at the same time as those were

the OA is A

I dont understand this.. Isnt the comaprision in A incorrect

the ancient civilization flourished as the civilizations in Nile delta..

i thilnk it should be

the ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as DID the civilizations in Nile delta.

the ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as DID the civilizations in Nile delta

I am not an expert,but definitely I would like to share my views.

When the verb is clear and there is no ambiguity,we don't need to refer back to that verb.

Eg : John worked hard like his other friends.

I know the sentence has a modifier error, but just to give you an idea.

ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates

I think its a logical comparison i.e we are saying one civilization flourished at the same time as the other one did (implied meaning)

One good strategy for Verbal is ELIMINATING the wrong answers. On difficult questions/questions were we struggle to pick a choice right away(since the others are as bad as it can get) this is the way to go...

B )that had flourished at the same time as had the civilizations

Unnecessarily uses past perfect when simple past is sufficient

C )that flourished at the same time those had


Awkward construction and comparison


D )flourishing at the same time as those did


Awkward construction and comparison


E) flourishing at the same time as those were

Awkward construction
Is it still flourishing, no thats not what the original sentence tried to convey or in this case conveyed since its A So basically it boiled down to "Are there any other choices that are grammatically correct for me to discard A and the answer is NO"

Hope this helps also.

Regards,
CR

gmat740 wrote:

the ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as DID the civilizations in Nile delta

I am not an expert,but definitely I would like to share my views.

When the verb is clear and there is no ambiguity,we don't need to refer back to that verb.

Eg : John worked hard like his other friends.

I know the sentence has a modifier error, but just to give you an idea.

According to what you say the statement "French wines taste better than Australian wines" must also be right ??

But i guess it is wrong usage clearly... I believe for this question all the answers are not totally right .. however A is the better of all the wrong ones...

We can immediately eliminate C, D and E because the civilizations in ...and the river valleys should be parallel ...Now "the river valleys" is not underlined ...then it means it got to be "the civilizations"

And there is NO need of past perfect tense as it is just a logical switch between simple present and past tense .... so A is the best of all.

A) that flourished at the same time as the civilizations
B )that had flourished at the same time as had the civilizations –No need to use past perfect OUT-
C )that flourished at the same time those had -had distorts paralelism OUT-
D )flourishing at the same time as those did - the site of an ancient civilization flourishing at the same time as those did in the Nile delta and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates. This sentence violates the meaning ….as those did those refers to what ? The site or ancient civilization ? OUT-

E) flourishing at the same time as those were- same as D - OUT


Please correct me if my idea is wrong

Seen the answers. Why I could not agree with the choice was for the obvious omission of the word "did". Then, I saw ellipses, according to which, an omission is self explanatory. till the verbs are in te same tense.
Then, according to ellipses, the two sentences must be right:-
1. Like my brother, I aced the GMAT.
2. As my brother, I aced the GMAT.
The second contains an ellipse. As my brother (did), I aced the GMAT.

Please clarify.