Quetzalcoatlus

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Quetzalcoatlus

by GmatKiss » Sun Oct 02, 2011 11:46 am
A huge flying reptile that died out with the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago, the Quetzalcoatlus had a wingspan of 36 feet, believed to be the largest flying creature the world has ever seen.

(A) believed to be
(B) and that is believed to be
(C) and it is believed to have been
(D) which was, it is believed,
(E) which is believed to be

Why is E wrong?

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by 786 » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:19 am
E is wrong because which refers to 36 feet and 36 feet is definitely not the largest flying creature .

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by sl750 » Mon Oct 03, 2011 2:51 am
IMO A is correct. .believed to be is modifying the creature. Verb+ed modifier

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by mad2011 » Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:09 am
IMO C

believed to be the largest flying creature the world has ever seen.

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by 786 » Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:15 am
believed to be works here as an adjective modifier .
Adjective modifiers work similar to which modifier .( courtesy :RON )

so 'believed to be' here modifies 36 feet and hence A is incorrect.
That is wrong in B .

IMO C

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by aspirant2011 » Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:09 am
Yuup E is wrong because which refers to 36 feet & therefore the same is wrong......

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by jonathan123456 » Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:29 am
IMO C
Whats the OA
GmatKiss wrote:A huge flying reptile that died out with the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago, the Quetzalcoatlus had a wingspan of 36 feet, believed to be the largest flying creature the world has ever seen.

(A) believed to be
(B) and that is believed to be
(C) and it is believed to have been
(D) which was, it is believed,
(E) which is believed to be

Why is E wrong?
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Oct 03, 2011 1:52 pm
GmatKiss wrote:A huge flying reptile that died out with the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago, the Quetzalcoatlus had a wingspan of 36 feet, believed to be the largest flying creature the world has ever seen.

(A) believed to be
(B) and that is believed to be
(C) and it is believed to have been
(D) which was, it is believed,
(E) which is believed to be

Why is E wrong?
The present infinitive expresses CONTEMPORANEOUS action (an action happening at the same time as another action):

I am happy to be president.

In the sentence above, I am happy (in the present) to be president (also in the present).

The present perfect infinitive expresses PRIOR action:

I am happy to have been president.

In the sentence above, I am happy (in the present) to have been president (in the past).

In the SC above, the reptile no longer exists, so the present perfect infinitive is needed:

...the Quetzalcoatlus...is believed to have been the largest flying creature the world has ever seen.

The correct answer is C.
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by navami » Wed Oct 05, 2011 8:23 am
Thanks Mitch
This time no looking back!!!
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by GmatKiss » Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:24 am
As always Mitch strikes:) Thanks a lot!

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by parul9 » Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:50 am

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by briology » Thu Oct 06, 2011 5:24 pm
I narrowed this down to A and C, but, even though C sounded better to my ear, I went with A because the 'it' pronoun in C seemed to be ambiguous. Why is the use of 'it' in C not a problem?