Sentence Correction

What was as remarkable as the development of the Compact Disc has been the use of the new technology to revitalize, in better sound than was ever before possible, some of the classic recorded performances of the pre-LP era.

A) What was as remarkable as the development of the Compact Disc
B) The thing that was as remarkable as the developing the Compact Disc
C) No less remarkable than the development of the Compact Disc
D) Developing the Compact Disc has been none the less remarkable as the development than
E) Development of the Compact Disc has been no less remarkable as

OA: C

If you get it right, please discuss the correct and incorrect options.

TkNeo wrote:What was as remarkable as the development of the Compact Disc has been the use of the new technology to revitalize, in better sound than was ever before possible, some of the classic recorded performances of the pre-LP era.

A) What was as remarkable as the development of the Compact Disc
B) The thing that was as remarkable as the developing the Compact Disc
C) No less remarkable than the development of the Compact Disc
D) Developing the Compact Disc has been none the less remarkable as the development than
E) Development of the Compact Disc has been no less remarkable as

This question is mostly about parallelism.

(a) has non-parallel tenses. For (a) to make sense, it would have to begin "what is as remarkable as", since the "remarkability" refers to the present (i.e. it's remarkable now). (b), (d) and (e) all make the same error.

Only (C) doesn't make the same mistake, therefore (c) must be correct.

Another issue with (d) and (e) is the incorrect idiom "less remarkable as" - "less remarkable than" is idiomatically correct. Another reason to eliminate (b) is that "as the developing compact disc" makes no sense in this sentence ("the development of the compact disc" has a completely different meaning and we want to avoid changing the meaning of the original sentence).

(c) uses the idiomatically correct (and parallel) "No less remarkable than the X has been the Y".

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:

TkNeo wrote:What was as remarkable as the development of the Compact Disc has been the use of the new technology to revitalize, in better sound than was ever before possible, some of the classic recorded performances of the pre-LP era.

A) What was as remarkable as the development of the Compact Disc
B) The thing that was as remarkable as the developing the Compact Disc
C) No less remarkable than the development of the Compact Disc
D) Developing the Compact Disc has been none the less remarkable as the development than
E) Development of the Compact Disc has been no less remarkable as

This question is mostly about parallelism.

(a) has non-parallel tenses. For (a) to make sense, it would have to begin "what is as remarkable as", since the "remarkability" refers to the present (i.e. it's remarkable now). (b), (d) and (e) all make the same error.

Only (C) doesn't make the same mistake, therefore (c) must be correct.

Another issue with (d) and (e) is the incorrect idiom "less remarkable as" - "less remarkable than" is idiomatically correct. Another reason to eliminate (b) is that "as the developing compact disc" makes no sense in this sentence ("the development of the compact disc" has a completely different meaning and we want to avoid changing the meaning of the original sentence).

(c) uses the idiomatically correct (and parallel) "No less remarkable than the X has been the Y".

See the part that got me was the comparison of tenses too... except i got it wrong

To me it looked it the question is comparing a breakthrough event in the past "development of CDs" to a breakthrough event that is happening now "revitalizing the classic performances". That is why i could not figure out the past tense in the first part of comparison was incorrect...

How did you see the two comparisons to be in the same tense ?

TkNeo,
Here I would like to mention something! Look, the passage (Qs) is saying -
Development of CD is as remarkable as the use of the new technology to revitalize, in better sound than it was ever before is having the same.
"New technology to revitalize sound" is in present - I agree. Now going back ur query, though development of CD was in past, we are not talking about its development. Rather we are talking about its contribution to the science (Am I clear here?). We cannot make a contribution of an invent in past in this context. So here comes the situation why we have to take care of tense mismatch into our investigation!
Hey TKNeo, are you getting me?

Hi Stuart,
You mentioned that
For (a) to make sense, it would have to begin "what is as remarkable as",

Does this mean that 2 verb tenses in (A) should be the same? or only one verb should be used?

I am having difficulty in understanding the basic structure of the sentence in a simplified form. I treated the sentence as:
"The development of X has been as remarkable as the use of Y."

But are following forms wrong?
- What is as remarkable as the development of X is the use of Y
- What has been as remarkable as the development of X has been the use of Y

I will appreciate if you could clarify this doubt.

Thank you.

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:

TkNeo wrote:What was as remarkable as the development of the Compact Disc has been the use of the new technology to revitalize, in better sound than was ever before possible, some of the classic recorded performances of the pre-LP era.

A) What was as remarkable as the development of the Compact Disc
B) The thing that was as remarkable as the developing the Compact Disc
C) No less remarkable than the development of the Compact Disc
D) Developing the Compact Disc has been none the less remarkable as the development than
E) Development of the Compact Disc has been no less remarkable as

This question is mostly about parallelism.

(a) has non-parallel tenses. For (a) to make sense, it would have to begin "what is as remarkable as", since the "remarkability" refers to the present (i.e. it's remarkable now). (b), (d) and (e) all make the same error.

Only (C) doesn't make the same mistake, therefore (c) must be correct.

Another issue with (d) and (e) is the incorrect idiom "less remarkable as" - "less remarkable than" is idiomatically correct. Another reason to eliminate (b) is that "as the developing compact disc" makes no sense in this sentence ("the development of the compact disc" has a completely different meaning and we want to avoid changing the meaning of the original sentence).

(c) uses the idiomatically correct (and parallel) "No less remarkable than the X has been the Y".

For choice A and B, the official explanation says : Besides being wordy, the clauses beginning What was in A and The thing that was in B cause inconsistencies in verb tense: the use of the new technology cannot logically be described by both the present perfect has been and the past was.


Can anyone explain why can't comparison use different tenses ? It's not clear.

Thanks.