challenges ??

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challenges ??

by gmat_dec » Mon Mar 01, 2010 2:19 am
Never before had the editors faced so many challenges at once as they had in compiling the 22nd annual compendium of the Archeological society of North America.

A. so many challenges at once as they had in
B. at once as many challenges as
C. at once as many challenges that they were when
D. as many challenges at once as they confronted in
E. so many challenges at once that confronted them in
[spoiler]
What is the diff between A and D. Please dont say that so...as is not a preferred idiom. There are a couple of instances where GMAT has used this construction[/spoiler]
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by papgust » Mon Mar 01, 2010 3:07 am
When you look at the sentence structure closely, it compares a particular experience with previous experiences. The non-underlined portion uses "had" which triggers that there is some contrast going on here with respect to time.

The editors confronted more challenges in Compiling the 22nd annual compendium than their previous experiences. So, you need a simple past "confronted" to logically match with past perfect "had faced". D is appropriate.

A uses the past perfect twice in the sentence which is wrong.

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by fibbonnaci » Mon Mar 01, 2010 3:38 am
awesome explanation papgust! absolutely correct and hits the point straight out.

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by hrishi19884 » Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:39 am
papgust wrote:When you look at the sentence structure closely, it compares a particular experience with previous experiences.
Nice work! It's tough to make that out by just reading for first time, since people are usually tempted to go with parallelism as in A.
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by prinit » Mon Mar 01, 2010 6:38 am
papgust wrote:When you look at the sentence structure closely, it compares a particular experience with previous experiences. The non-underlined portion uses "had" which triggers that there is some contrast going on here with respect to time.

The editors confronted more challenges in Compiling the 22nd annual compendium than their previous experiences. So, you need a simple past "confronted" to logically match with past perfect "had faced". D is appropriate.

A uses the past perfect twice in the sentence which is wrong.
Excellent explanation. Thanks a lot. I picked up A :(
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