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MGMAT:health commissioner

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MGMAT:health commissioner

by ashish2104 » Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:06 am
The health commissioner said that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and, despite the recent illnesses, it will try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future.
A)it will try
B)that it tried
C)it had tried
D)it would have tried
E)that it would try

OA:E
[spoiler]As per MGMAT SC guide, If Past perfect is used, Then conditonal perfect is appropriate. For eg: If sophie had eaten pizza yesterday, then she would have become ill.
Does this rule apply only to if-then hypothetical constructions or general hypoothetical constructions?[/spoiler]
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by paes » Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:19 am
good question.

IMO A

why I am choosing A over E.

[1]
would is used when future(suppose event A) is seen from past.
AND
the event(A) is a past w.r.t. present time.
e.g.
In 1990, somebody declared that the world would finish in 2006.

If event(A) is still in future then 'will' is the right choice
e.g.
In 1990, somebody declared that the world will finish in 2012.

So keeping the above concept in mind, if I read the sentence, then A looks better than E.

[2] I am not liking the placement of that in E.

.....and, despite the recent illnesses, that it would try ....

If it had been like :

....and that , despite the recent illnesses, it would try ....

then E could have been a better choice than A.

Please share your thoughts.
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by puneetdua » Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:12 am
IMO E -

1)parallelism - said that .... that
2) So this gives B and E -
out of B and E -

E fits better in sentence.
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by FightWithGMAT » Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:51 am
ashish2104 wrote:The health commissioner said that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and, despite the recent illnesses, it will try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future.
A)it will try
B)that it tried
C)it had tried
D)it would have tried
E)that it would try

OA:E
[spoiler]As per MGMAT SC guide, If Past perfect is used, Then conditonal perfect is appropriate. For eg: If sophie had eaten pizza yesterday, then she would have become ill.
Does this rule apply only to if-then hypothetical constructions or general hypoothetical constructions?[/spoiler]
Here the idea is:

The commissioner wanted to convey to different messages (ideas)

1. The idea that happened in the past before the commissioner announced
2. The idea that will happen in the future after the commissioner announced.

The commissioner said that X had
The commissioner said that X would

If these two ideas are not different, there will not be any point to have 2 different subjects under one relative clause THAT
One subject will do.........So IT is not required at all.

The commissioner said that X had ............and would (will)-------correct
The commissioner said that X had.............,and IT will--------Incorrect (wordy in GMAT sense)
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by FightWithGMAT » Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:55 am
paes wrote:good question.

IMO A

why I am choosing A over E.

[1]
would is used when future(suppose event A) is seen from past.
AND
the event(A) is a past w.r.t. present time.
e.g.
In 1990, somebody declared that the world would finish in 2006.

If event(A) is still in future then 'will' is the right choice
e.g.
In 1990, somebody declared that the world will finish in 2012.

So keeping the above concept in mind, if I read the sentence, then A looks better than E.

[2] I am not liking the placement of that in E.

.....and, despite the recent illnesses, that it would try ....

If it had been like :

....and that , despite the recent illnesses, it would try ....

then E could have been a better choice than A.

Please share your thoughts.
Yes the placement of "despite the recent illnesses" makes the sentence weird but not illogical.

Read it as:

The commissioner said, despite the recent illnesses, that X would......

The other form, as most of us think, will also be good

The commissioner said that, despite the recent illnesses, X would...

But both have different meanings :)
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by tomada » Thu Aug 19, 2010 11:27 am
IMO E
I'm really old, but I'll never be too old to become more educated.
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by gmat_perfect » Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:41 pm
ashish2104 wrote:The health commissioner said that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food and, despite the recent illnesses, it will try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future.
A)it will try
B)that it tried
C)it had tried
D)it would have tried
E)that it would try

OA:E
[spoiler]As per MGMAT SC guide, If Past perfect is used, Then conditonal perfect is appropriate. For eg: If sophie had eaten pizza yesterday, then she would have become ill.
Does this rule apply only to if-then hypothetical constructions or general hypoothetical constructions?[/spoiler]

Two things:

See the examples:

They said that:----

1. I had done something, and
2. I will do something.

If we want to join these two with the main sentence, which has the verb in the past simple, we MUST write this in this way.

They said that I had done something and that I would something.

--> They said that I would something.

Say => said
Will=> Would.

So, E is the perfect answer.

Thanks.
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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Aug 30, 2010 1:43 pm
Received a PM asking me to reply.

He had said that he would write the book today, but then he became ill.
past perfect, then conditional, then simple past (this conditional is not hypothetical though, but "future from past" - he did actually intend to write the book today)

I can't think of a circumstance in which we'd have past perfect plus conditional perfect indicating a hypothetical but it would NOT be an if-then setup. (Which doesn't mean it doesn't exist, of course... but I can't think of an example!) Can anyone else think of one?

paes:
.....and, despite the recent illnesses, that it would try ....

If it had been like :

....and that , despite the recent illnesses, it would try ....
Both are fine. The first one is actually clearer / less tricky! :)

As you and some others noted, the "despite the recent illnesses" modifier makes the sentence harder / weirder. That's exactly why it's there - to trip us up.
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