Anarchists believe that the ideal society is one in which the motivati

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Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Verb Forms + Tenses + Parallelism

• Intransitive verbs refer to subjects, and transitive verbs refer to objects.
• Any elements linked by a conjunction (“rather than” and "instead of" in this sentence) must be parallel.
• Information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense
• The simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.

A: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun "motivation" with the singular verb "lies". Further, Option A correctly uses the transitive verb "lies" to refer to the subject of the sentence. Moreover, Option A correctly uses the simple present tense verb "lies" to refer to information that is permanent in nature. Additionally, Option A maintains parallelism between "in the innate reasonableness of human nature" and "in the threat of force". Besides, Option A uses the preferred construction "rather than".

B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun "motivation" with the plural verb "lie".

C: This answer choice incorrectly uses the transitive verb "lays" to refer to the subject of the sentence "the motivation"; please remember, intransitive verbs, such as "lie", refer to subjects, and transitive verbs, such as "lays", refer to objects. Further, Option C fails to maintain parallelism between "in the innate reasonableness of human nature" and "the threat of force"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("rather than" in this sentence) must be parallel.

D: This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "lay" to refer to information that is permanent in nature; please remember, information that is permanent in nature is best conveyed through the simple present tense, and the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past. Further, Option D fails to maintain parallelism between "in the innate reasonableness of human nature" and "the threat of force"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("instead of" in this sentence) must be parallel. Additionally, a general observation: “instead of” generally loses to “rather than” on GMAT.

E: This answer choice fails to maintain parallelism between "in the innate reasonableness of human nature" and "the threat of force"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("instead of" in this sentence) must be parallel. Additionally, a general observation: “instead of” generally loses to “rather than” on GMAT.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team