Sentence Correction

goelmohit2002 wrote:

lunarpower wrote: on an official problem, you will not be forced to choose between verb tenses in otherwise correct sentences based on concision.

bad.

Thanks Ron for clearing the doubts.Can you please tell
a) should we ignore this question...or
b) as fellow members suggested above for kicking out "C" and "D" sound convincing to you too.
c) or you think there might be some better reasons to kick out "C" and "D".

Kindly give your opinion about "controls on prices" and "price controls" split too.

Thanks
Mohit

the difference between "controls on prices" and "price controls", if there is even a difference at all, is much too trivial to be a basis for elimination.
in fact, the official line on such differences isn't even clear; one OG verbal supp question, for instance, ranks "sediments from the baltic sea" as better usage than "baltic sea sediments".

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overall, though, this is a very bad question.

* its ONE redeeming quality is the elimination of choices (a) and (b) based on the bad modifier (the clause MUST start with "the president").

* the gmat will NEVER use concision as a basis for choosing between verb tenses. it just won't. there will always be something - context, parallelism, etc. - that will make one tense CORRECT and other tenses WRONG.

* i'm also troubled by the mysterious disappearance of the word "directive". the gmat wouldn't just scrap such a word.

TedCornell wrote:Actually, there is plenty of context here to determine that the past perfect "had instituted" is wrong and this split could very well be on an official GMAT question.

Pinky did a fantastic job of explaining. This sentence has only one conjugated verb (instute/establish). The past perfect is not appropriate because this verb does not express the first of two past actions.

(I study with OG, MGMAT SC and GMATFix Verbal Flashcards)

don't mistake lack of context for context itself. this problem contains no context at all - a situation that will not prevail on a gmat verb-tense problem.

we both agree on one thing: if there is no reason to use a compound tense, then don't use one. however, official problems will always contain more context than is present in this problem.

i.e., (d) is actually a grammatically correct sentence; if you place it in the context of other sentences, it could actually be the correct version. (that won't happen on the test, of course, because SC problems are always single sentences.)
the problem here is just that the past perfect is unnecessary. however, the gmat won't make you eliminate unnecessary verb tenses; it'll make you eliminate wrong ones.

as an illustration, check out #75 in the og11 (don't post details here), in which the context actually renders the past perfect incorrect.

goelmohit2002 wrote:Hi Ron,

But Manhattan SC guide says that "Stick to simple tenses"...do not use perfect tenses unless necessary...

Why can't we kick out "D" on the basis of that ? :-)

BTW what problem you think is there in "C"....is it wordiness ?

Thanks
Mohit

ok, what i'm trying to say is this:

IF you got a problem like this, where there is no context and you are presented with simple tense vs. complex tense, then you'd go with the simple tense.

...but, on official problems, there will be context.

it's still a good rule-of-thumb to follow.

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note, though, that you DON'T need two ACTIONS to justify the use of the past perfect. the second time marker can be just that - a time marker.

for instance:

as of the beginning of the 1991 track season, the world record in the men's long jump had stood for twenty-three years.
this is a correct sentence, even though there is only one verb: the second time marker is the given date (the start of the '91 season), rather than an action.

for (c) i'm guessing they differentiate on concision.