Geologist Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875) believed the theologians of

We use past perfect in D just because it is reporting sentence in which all simple pasts go past perfect. Otherwise, there is no need to use PP, it is clear from context that one event comes before another

How is D preferred over E? Is it only past perfect. or something else. I too think that past perfect is not mandatory.

From the point believed A and B are wrong because of parallelism error. after "and" both A and B have that which is not there, in first part, in both A and B.

C and E are wrong because of use of simple future tense "Will". as this belief was of Geologist and stated by author in present time. so use of "would" form is correct with past perfect in first part. C also has meaning issue.

I don't know my If my explanations are right or not but this is how I did it.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

The we need to use past perfect since one action started in the past and finished in the past. Hence D is a correct choice. "Would" is correct because we deal with forecast

I choose b because we do not have a past action which happen after to use past perfect here.

the real issue in E is the verb tense.
"than was previously suspected" is correct. There is a question with the similar pattern, but the pattern in E is correct. I guess such issue of comparison is not a big deal in gmat.

MAGOOSH Official Explanation:

Split #1: the object of "believe" has to be a "that" clause. In colloquial speech, one can drop the word "that", but in the formal language of the GMAT, this is unacceptable. We need to have the word "that" at the beginning of the clause. Choices (A) & (B) omit the word "that", and so are incorrect.

Split #2: the comparison following the words "much older Earth" ----

(A) compared to what they previously expected --- long & awkward

(B) than was previously expected --- elegant & correct

(C) compared to the previously expected --- long & awkward

(D) than was previously suspected --- elegant & correct

(E) than they previously suspected --- awkward

Technically the awkward versions could be correct, so we can't definitively eliminate anything on this basis, but we suspect none of these will be part of the correct answer.

Split #3: sequence of tenses. Lyell believed something in the past, and so the verbs describing the content of his belief must follow the rules of the sequence of tenses. The "underestimating" was done by theologians before Lyell's time, in Lyell's past, so this verb should be in the past perfect, "had underestimated." The "justifying" was in Lyell's future, so this verb should be in the conditional tense, "would justify." Only (A) & (D) have the first verb in the past perfect, and only (B) & (D) have the second verb in the condition. Therefore, only (D) has both verbs correct.

For all these reasons, (D) is the only possible answer.

A,B -"that" is needed to prevent distortion of meaning.
C,E - While talking about future in past we have to use "would". Usage of will is incorrect.

Hence, D is the answer.

Hey daagh,

so as I understand, what I one thing that does not work in E, is the fact, that it uses simple past as a base (believed) and continues from this past with future, which is not possible, because future in the past, is "would" so to say. Am I right?

Cheers
Rudolf

Am I understanding it right that if I’m the correct answer choice, instead of “vastly underestimated”, “had vastly underestimated” was written, then the conditional verb would change to “would have justified” (what tense is this? Future perfect?) from “would previously justify”

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Hi, Could anyone help me with comparison rules here?
Apart from any other grammar rules, how can i rule out wrong choices among these based on comparison part?

As far as i'm concerned, "older" cannot be with "compared to", so i ruled out A and C
but after that i was totally lost

A) a much older Earth compared to what they previously expected
B) a much older Earth than was previously suspected
C) a much older Earth compared to the previously expected
D) a much older Earth than was previously suspected
E) a much older Earth than they previously suspected

If D is prefered over E coz of reported speech, can you please tell me the the direct speech of the the following:

Geologist Charles Lyell (1797 ??? 1875) believed that the theologians of previous centuries had vastly underestimated the age of the Earth and that evidence would justify a much older Earth than was previously suspected.


I was under the impression that direct/reported speech is only applicable for the sentenced that has been said by someone

Harley1980 here all

The correct answer seems like E for reasons below.

-> The past perfect seems incorrect because the events are unrelated.
------>Did the theologians underestimated so Geologist Charles Lyell could believe?

-> The questions mentions "to what they previously expected"
.------>The removal of pronoun changes the meaning of the sentence and we no longer know who expected the said action.


Please comment if anyone can help. Thanks

Hello vishalsinghvs08,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the past events need not be related to one another for the past perfect tense to apply.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Geologist Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875) believed the theologians of previous centuries had vastly underestimated the age of the Earth and that evidence will justify a much older Earth compared to what they previously expected.

A) the theologians of previous centuries had vastly underestimated the age of the Earth and that evidence will justify a much older Earth compared to what they previously expected
B) the theologians of previous centuries vastly underestimated the age of the Earth and that evidence would justify a much older Earth than was previously suspected
C) that the theologians of previous centuries vastly underestimated the age of the Earth and that evidence will justify a much older Earth compared to the previously expected
D) that the theologians of previous centuries had vastly underestimated the age of the Earth and that evidence would justify a much older Earth than was previously suspected
E) that the theologians of previous centuries vastly underestimated the age of the Earth and that evidence will justify a much older Earth than they previously suspected

Two events which occurred in the past one takes had+ past participle and other takes simple past. There should be parallelism between that the theologians and that the evidence so the ans is D.