TommyWallach wrote:
Hey All,
I'd like to weigh in briefly on this question, though in the same spirit of curious examination as the rest of you. This question seems a little bit fishy to me, for reasons I'll try to explain.
The correct use of the past perfect tense on the GMAT requires the existence of a verb in the simple past. As far as I can see, this sentence does not have one. The only verbs we get are "states", which is present tense, and "should be implemented", which is a conditional tense (more like future). Because there is no past tense, I cannot justify the past perfect. You could justify the SIMPLE past "more quickly than they were in the past", but that isn't an answer choice.
I realize the present perfect doesn't feel great, but I'd like to justify it thusly: because of the phrase "in the past", we are actually talking about something that CONTINUES to be true (i.e. it remains true, in the present, that this was going on IN THE PAST). This would lead me to a present perfect verb, as in answer choice D.
My actual preference would be for an answer choice that doesn't exist (as described above, with "were"), but because of the lack of a simple past verb, I don't see answer choice E being correct.
I'm open for debate, but feel confident.
Hope that helps!
agree with Tommy.ans has to be D