Whats the correct answer?-a tricky one.

[raunekk]

hi guys.. i was goin thru Kaplan 800 Sc section....I came across a tricky one.. wats d right answer??

Q)Some of the wild dogs that were distributed to local pet sanctuaries by city health officials and exterminated last year were collected as part of the city's initiative to protect local residents from dog attacks.

A. Some of the wild dogs that were distributed to local pet sanctuaries by city health officials and exterminated last year were

B. Some of the wild dogs that the local pet sanctuaries received and the city health health officials exterminated have been

C.Some of the wild dogs that were distributed to local pet sanctuaries or exterminated by city health officialslst year had been

D. Last year some of the wild dogs that were distributed to local pet sanctuaries or exterminated by city health officials made

E. Last year city health officials distibuted to local pet sanctuaries as well as exterminated some of the wild dogs that had been


The book says the answer is (C).But i feel the verb "had been" is wrongly used, as "some" is an indefinite pronoun, here it should take "have" as "dogs" is plural.

Please do comment...

[Stuart@KaplanGMAT]

hi guys.. i was goin thru Kaplan 800 Sc section....I came across a tricky one.. wats d right answer??

Q)Some of the wild dogs that were distributed to local pet sanctuaries by city health officials and exterminated last year were collected as part of the city's initiative to protect local residents from dog attacks.

A. Some of the wild dogs that were distributed to local pet sanctuaries by city health officials and exterminated last year were

B. Some of the wild dogs that the local pet sanctuaries received and the city health health officials exterminated have been

C.Some of the wild dogs that were distributed to local pet sanctuaries or exterminated by city health officialslst year had been

D. Last year some of the wild dogs that were distributed to local pet sanctuaries or exterminated by city health officials made

E. Last year city health officials distibuted to local pet sanctuaries as well as exterminated some of the wild dogs that had been


The book says the answer is (C).But i feel the verb "had been" is wrongly used, as "some" is an indefinite pronoun, here it should take "have" as "dogs" is plural.

Please do comment...

"Had been" is definitely the proper verb.

When we have multiple actions taking place, we need to make sure that we use verbs that accurate portray the sequence of events.

We know that the dogs were distributed and exterminated "last year" - in the past. We have another action taking place, "collect". Logically, the dogs were collected before they were distributed and exterminated. Therefore, we need to use a tense ealier than the simple past.

The past perfect (or "double past") is the tense we need to use. To form the past perfect, we basically throw "had" in front of the verb. Since only choice (c) uses that verb form properly, it must be the correct choice.

Note: we use "had" regardless of the size of the subject. It's equally correct to say:

"they had been collected";

and

"it had been collected".