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A historian attempting to predict in the 1870's which nation [#permalink]
 06 Feb 2009, 21:38
Question Stats:
25% (01:24) correct
74% (00:50) wrong based on 2 sessions
A historian attempting to predict in the 1870's which nation would take over world leadership from the British probably would have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been quite wrong. (A) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been (B) have guessed that it would have been Bismarck's Prussia and he would be (C) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and would be (D) guess Bismarck's Prussia and be (E) guess that it would be Bismarck's Prussia and would have been
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
06 Feb 2009, 21:46
x2suresh wrote: A historian attempting to predict in the 1870's which nation would take over world leadership from the British probably would have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been quite wrong.
(A) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been
(B) have guessed that it would have been Bismarck's Prussia and he would be
(C) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and would be
(D) guess Bismarck's Prussia and be
(E) guess that it would be Bismarck's Prussia and would have been For me, I would choose A for this one. For parallelism, would have guessed ...and (would have) been wrong. The second would have can be optional. Only A has the correct parallel structure.
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
07 Feb 2009, 04:32
Hi mates, IMO AA because of //ism: A historian would have guessed Prussian and (would have) been quite wrong B out: doesn't follow //ism: "he would be" C out: same reason as in B D and E out: perfect sense is required OA and Source? Cheers
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
07 Feb 2009, 09:21
I'll go with C
'have been' is not required because the action is already completed.
"He would have guessed and would be wrong...." is OK I think
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
07 Feb 2009, 13:03
I will go with D.
A historian trying to preduct.....which nation would take over.....requires simple past tense and hence option D.
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
07 Feb 2009, 13:09
OA is A.
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
07 Feb 2009, 21:31
Do you have OE?
Cheers,
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
07 Feb 2009, 21:41
unplugged wrote: Do you have OE?
Cheers,
Unplugged Sorry No this is from Brutal SCs List.
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
08 Feb 2009, 00:47
x2suresh wrote: A historian attempting to predict in the 1870's which nation would take over world leadership from the British probably would have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been quite wrong.
(A) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been
(B) have guessed that it would have been Bismarck's Prussia and he would be
(C) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and would be
(D) guess Bismarck's Prussia and be
(E) guess that it would be Bismarck's Prussia and would have been which parts are parallel here? A historian attempting to predict in the 1870's which nation would take over world leadership from the British probably would have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been quite wrong. OR A historian attempting to predict in the 1870's which nation would take over world leadership from the British probably would have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and would be quite wrong.
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
08 Feb 2009, 01:28
A historian attempting to predict in the 1870's which nation would take over world leadership from the British probably would have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been quite wrong.
(A) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been
(B) have guessed that it would have been Bismarck's Prussia and he would be
(C) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and would be
(D) guess Bismarck's Prussia and be
(E) guess that it would be Bismarck's Prussia and would have been
Attempting ... been is required.
E - it is redundant.
So A
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
18 Feb 2010, 13:41
Sorry, perhaps I am thinking about it the wrong way but aren't any verb constructions of "have guessed" a present perfect tense, therefore suggesting that it continues in the present?
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
20 May 2010, 21:51
Why is present perfect needed here? Is it because it is hypothetical?
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
21 May 2010, 09:08
can someone provide a more detailed explanation of why A is correct?
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
03 Jun 2010, 22:07
I thought it was C, but even after searching for OE I could not understand legibly why A is preferable over C, besides the point of parallelism!
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
13 Jun 2010, 04:12
Why do we need past perfect here in the first clause--> someone predicting X in 1880 would guess (why do we need a have in between?)
Confused????
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
13 Jun 2010, 04:14
Why do we need present perfect tense in the first clause ==>
Someone predicting X in 1890 would guess.....'
Why do we need have in between...really confused?
Thanks
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
07 Jul 2010, 03:22
can someone please explain,Why not C??
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
07 Jul 2010, 06:02
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A historian attempting to predict in the 1870's which nation would take over world leadership from the British probably would have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been quite wrong. (A) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and (would)been -> no need to specify would again.(B) have guessed that it would have been Bismarck's Prussia and he would be -> tense order should be reversed(C) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and would be ->needs would have been->this action is some where after the past(i.e. in the future of the past) but before the present.(D) guess Bismarck's Prussia and be (E) guess that it would be Bismarck's Prussia and would have been IMO 'A'
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
27 Feb 2011, 11:05
is this explanation accurate ? why not E) guess that it would be Bismarck's Prussia and would have been , is this wrong because of redundancy ?
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Re: SC - Historian [#permalink]
24 Jul 2011, 00:41
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A historian attempting to predict in the 1870's which nation would take over world leadership from the British probably would have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been quite wrong. (A) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been Is correct as written as the 'would' applies to both - would have guessed and would have been wrong.
Why we require present perfect here?he made a prediction and was wrong about it; he still is wrong..recall from mgmat SC that when the effect continues, the present perfect is called for.
(B) have guessed that it would have been Bismarck's Prussia and he would be unnecessarily wordy; what does 'it' refer to here; 'been wrong' is required here for the sake of parallelism and tense(C) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and would be 'and would be' is wrong as 'would have been' is required for parallelism and tense reasons(D) guess Bismarck's Prussia and be we are talking about 1870s. had it been about now, we could have used something similar to 'I will guess x and be wrong'
(E) guess that it would be Bismarck's Prussia and would have been similar reasoning as D. Also its wordy.
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Re: SC - Historian
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24 Jul 2011, 00:41
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