In an effort to reduce their inventories, Italian vintners have cut

Ellipsis
Tom solves SC questions more efficiently than Marie does.
Here "does" is used in place of "solves" - Substitution

Tom solves SC questions more efficiently than Marie.
Here "does" has been omitted. The verb can be omitted from the comparison since the sentence does not result in any ambiguity after the omission. So as you can see above, such omission (also called as ellipsis) is done to make the sentence more crisp. And how do we make the sentence more crisp - by not repeating certain words that have already appeared once in the sentence. This applies really well when we have comparison or parallel constructions involving verbs. And hence we come to the main take away.

You can omit the words till the point the meaning is clear.

Tom adores his wife more than his mother does.
Here "does" is used in place of "adores" - Substitution

Tom adores his wife more than his mother.
Here "does" has been omitted. But is the meaning clear? What is the comparison here? Are we comparing how much Tom adores his wife vs how much he adores his mother. Or are we comparing how much Tom adores his wife vs how much his mother adores his wife. That is one of the two following sentences:

1: Tom adores his wife more than his mother does.
2: Tom adores his wife more than he adores his mother.

I hope this example set helped reinforce the takeaway stated above.

I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father did
Now this sentence is wrong. And here is why. Here ellipsis/omission has not been applied correctly. Basically, the author has omitted the verb - see. (did see = saw) as shown below:
I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father DID .

But notice, the verb "see" does not appear as is anywhere in the sentence. And you cannot omit something that does not exist.

Now let's take this other example sentence:
Our cars were designed to inspire envy, and they are
What could have been omitted here? There is a verb from "to inspire". So the verb form "inspire" could have been omitted. But when I place this supposedly omitted word what do I get:
Our cars were designed to inspire envy, and they are inspire. - This is absolutely incorrect.
Doing the same in the correct version - here is what we get.
Our cars were designed to inspire envy, and they do
Notice how putting back the omitted word makes perfect sense in the sentence.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/ellipsis-sub ... l#p1179228 (This helped me to understand the concept)

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Tenses

• Correct present perfect tense verb construction is "have + been + past participle" or "have + been + past participle" in the passive voice.
• The present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present.
• The simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.
• The Past perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb "had") is used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past".

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the present perfect tense verb "have been priced" to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame; please remember, the simple present tense is used to refer to actions that take place in the current time frame, and the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present.

B: This answer choice incorrectly uses the present perfect tense verb "have (sold)" to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame; please remember, the simple present tense is used to refer to actions that take place in the current time frame, and the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present. Further, Option B fails to maintain the correct present perfect tense verb construction; please remember, the correct present perfect tense verb construction is "have + been + past participle" or "have + been + past participle" in the passive voice.

C: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses the simple present tense verbs "are priced" and "do" to refer to actions that take place in the current time frame. Further, Option C avoids the verb construction error seen in Options B, D, and E, as it does not use a present perfect tense verb.

D: This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple present continuous tense verb "are being" to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame but is not continuous; please remember, the simple present tense is used to refer to actions that take place in the current time frame, and the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to actions that are currently ongoing and continuous in nature. Further, Option D incorrectly uses the present perfect tense verb "have (sold)" to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame; please remember, the simple present tense is used to refer to actions that take place in the current time frame, and the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present. Additionally, Option D fails to maintain the correct present perfect tense verb construction; please remember, the correct present perfect tense verb construction is "have + been + past participle" or "have + been + past participle" in the passive voice.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb "had been priced" to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame; please remember, the simple present tense is used to refer to actions that take place in the current time frame, and the past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past". Further, Option E incorrectly uses the present perfect tense verb "have (sold)" to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame; please remember, the simple present tense is used to refer to actions that take place in the current time frame, and the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present. Additionally, Option E fails to maintain the correct present perfect tense verb construction; please remember, the correct present perfect tense verb construction is "have + been + past participle" or "have + been + past participle" in the passive voice.

Hence, C is the best answer choice.

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



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



To understand the concept of "Past Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Hi ExpertsGlobal5

As per your explanation, in case of present perfect tense, action concludes in the past and its consequences continue in the present. However, as per my understanding, an action that began in the past and is still continuing is also covered by present perfect tense. In fact, in this question, "have cut prices" seems parallel to "have been priced", so your reasoning seems confusing.

Error Analysis:

Now let’s look at the errors in the original sentence:
The first past of the underlined portion says the wines have been priced to sell. The second part says “they are”. So here we have ellipsis in play. Now, we can only make those words understood that have already appeared in the sentence in the same for. However, after “are” the verbs that can be used are “sold” or “selling”. However, none of these verb forms appear in the sentence anywhere. Hence, “are” is the incorrect helping verb.

Correct present perfect tense verb construction is "have + been + past participle" or "have + been + past participle" in the passive voice.

Further, the parallelism between "have cut" and "have been priced" is not needed, as the latter verb refers to an action that takes place in the current time frame, meaning it must be conveyed through the simple present tense; remember, verbs need not be in the same tense to be considered parallel; a sentence can use verbs of different tenses to refer to actions that take place in different time periods.

For example: "I was vaccinated today, and my brother will get vaccinated tomorrow."

Here, "was vaccinated" and "will get vaccinated" are parallel verbs, even though they are of different tenses.

Thanks ExpertsGlobal5 for the reply. Follow up queries-

I think "been" is not required in the first double inverted commas in your original post because both the inverted commas state the same thing.

To reconfirm because this isn't covered in GMAT short videos, "have + been + past participle" in the passive voice means action concluded in the past but continue to affect the present? GMAT short video just states that "have + been" is present perfect continuous i.e. action is still continuing in the present, without touching upon past/present participle concept.



Since "have + been + past participle" in the passive voice indicates action completed in the past but continue to affect the present, I applied this understanding to the question in hand.

"have been priced"- I thought that since prices have already been cut in the past and continue to affect the present, the latter verb would react similarly, i.e. inventory prices were revised in the past when they were cut in the past and continue to affect the present- thereby the usage of "have been priced" being correct.

Accordingly, the below would be logical:
have cut and have been priced- both actions concluded in past and affecting current events (past coming into present)
are (sold/selling)- this is current event (present)

PS. Applying ellipsis logic as given by egmat, I wouldn't have raised the above queries. But that logic does not seem full proof because in this official question, this logic seems to be not working.

Please respond. TIA.

Further, your reasoning here - "have cut and have been priced- both actions concluded in past and affecting current events (past coming into present)
are (sold/selling)- this is current event (present)" - is correct.

ExpertsGlobal5

Thanks for the revert. If my reasoning that 'wines have been priced when their prices were cut in the past and are being sold at reduced prices now (effect of past)' is correct, then why is choice A incorrect? How can we assume that "priced" requires simple present tense?

GMATNinja

Thank you for always writing such great solutions. I have some queries regarding verb substitution rules. Request if you can explain the same

Can forms of "do" refer back to any verb in the clause and not only to the main verb

Can forms of "do" refer back to a verb in any tense

Can forms of "be" and "has/ have" refer back only to verbs in their own respective forms

Thank you so much!

For your first two questions: I don't see why not! There are certainly no definitive "rules" stating that you can't, so if you come across something one of these cases and the meaning makes sense, you should look for other decision points.

As for your third question, it sounds like you're asking about something like this:

"Tim has been studying for five months, as is his neighbor."

Using a "to be" placeholder ("is") with a "has been" verb is confusing. Are we saying that the neighbor has been studying for five months too? Or just that the neighbor is studying right now? It's unclear, so you'd probably want to avoid something like this.

Does that mean this sort of thing is always wrong? Maybe. Maybe not.

Notice that my response is intentionally vague! We don't want to encourage you to come up with a list of immutable grammar rules that you can use to eliminate choices without thinking about the context of the question. That's a bad habit, and it won't help you in the long run.

So think about the placeholder verb carefully. What does it take the place of? Does that make sense? Is it confusing or open to interpretation?

When in doubt, be conservative and look for other decision points. It's easy to develop an over-reliance on invented "rules" that don't always work -- so I would be very careful not to turn SC into an exercise in memorization. You'll almost always need to think about the context of the sentence.

I hope that helps a bit!