Skywalker18 wrote:
Artificial intelligence emerged during the late 1950’s as an academic discipline based on the assumption that computers are able to be programmed to think like people.
(A) are able to be programmed to think like people -
(B) were able to be programmed to think as people - usage of as is incorrect (When as is used for comparison, we need a verb)
(C) can be programmed to think as people can - illogical meaning- it means that people can be programmed to think
(D) could be programmed to think like people - Correct
(E) are capable of being programmed to think like people do - usage of like to compare verbs is incorrect
Answer D
1. Can we eliminate options A, C, and E because the tense of the main clause is past whereas the 'that' clause is in the present tense?
No. Which is better in the noun clause, the present tense or the past tense, is debatable. I prefer the present tense, though, because the sentence is not saying, "people assumed that X." Rather, via the noun clause, the sentence is articulating the assumption. The assumption is basically timeless. So, my call is that the use of the present tense in the noun clause is actually a little better.
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2. If we can't eliminate using decision point in 1, which is better
could be programmed to think like people
OR can be programmed to think like people
The sentence is articulating the assumption. The assumption is basically timeless. So, my call is that the use of present tense "can" is a little better.
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3. If we change option C as
Artificial intelligence emerged during the late 1950’s as an academic discipline based on the assumption that computers can be programmed to think as people do
which can be interpreted as- can be programmed to think as people think.
Yup, "do" replaces "think," whereas "can" could only replace "can be programmed," since the sentence does not include "can think." So, your new version works.