Thomas Eakins’ powerful style and his choices of subject—the advances

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Subject-Verb Agreement + Pronouns + Tenses + Comparison

• The simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.
• 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.
• A comparison must always be made between similar elements.

A: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun phrase "powerful style and his choices of subject" with the singular verbs "was" and "is" and the singular pronoun "it".

B: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the plural noun phrase "powerful style and his choices of subject" with the plural verbs "were" and "are" and the plural pronoun "they". Further, Option B correctly uses the simple past tense "were" to refer to an action that concluded in the past. Moreover, Option B correctly uses the simple present tense verb "are" to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame. Additionally, Option B correctly compares the verb phrase "were...disturbing to his own time" with the verb phrase "they are compelling for ours".

C: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun phrase "powerful style and his choices of subject" with the singular verb "has been". Further, Option C incorrectly uses the present perfect tense verb "has been" to refer to an event that concluded in the past; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past, 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.

D: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the plural noun phrase "powerful style and his choices of subject" with the singular verb "was" and the singular pronoun "it". Further, Option D incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb "was" 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 simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses the present perfect tense verb "have been" to refer to an event that concluded in the past; please remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past, 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 E incorrectly compares the verb phrase "have been...disturbing in his own" to the adjective phrase "compelling for ours"; please remember, a comparison must always be made between similar elements.

Hence, B 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 "Present Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

"his choices of subject" requires "were"

(B)

B is he answer as the question in question is refering to two things so plural form will be used. As the question talks about present tense so are.

Regards

“Thomas Eakins’ powerful style and his choices of subject” is a plural subject and require a plural verb. So choice A, C and D are out.

The first event happened in the past and the second event is occurring in the present. So the tense should reflect the occurrence. Hence the first verb should be in past tense and second verb should be present tense. So choice E is out

So the answer is B

Between B and E,the comparison element is missing in E.
B clearly has reference they are. Hence better.

have been is not necessary here.

Thomas Eakins’ powerful style and his choices of subject [needs plural verb]
—the advances in modern surgery, the discipline of sport, the strains of individuals in tension with society or even with themselves—
was as disturbing to his own time as it is compelling for ours.
(A) was as disturbing to his own time as it is
(B) were as disturbing to his own time as they are
(C) has been as disturbing in his own time as they are
(D) had been as disturbing in his own time as it was
(E) have been as disturbing in his own time as

B Vs E:
We are making comparison between 2 times Eakin's time(Past) and our (present) time. Have been shows present and hence incorrect.
B is correct.

(A) was as disturbing to his own time as it is - SINGULAR
(B) were as disturbing to his own time as they are
(C) has been as disturbing in his own time as they are -- SINGULAR
(D) had been as disturbing in his own time as it was - - SINGULAR
(E) have been as disturbing in his own time as-CONTINUOUS tense

Hi all,
can I ask a silly question ? Would it be correct if we change it option E to "were as disturbing in his own time as"? I think it is still wrong as in this case , we are comparing disturbing to compelling? Thanks all in advance

katzzzz

True; E is a multiple error choice with a tense, subject-pronoun agreement and comparison issues ; Tinkering with just one of the errors isn't going to help. And even if you emend all the errors in choice E, and make it comparable to B, amusingly it will add more problems with two correct answers for a single problem.

"AND" when introducing a list of items is always plural.
A and C are out because they are using singular verb -was,has,
B, D and E remaining
D is out because it uses "was" for present tense.
E is out because of parallelism -
X have been as disturbing in his own time as compelling for ours. Wrong
X have been as disturbing in his own time as X (it) is compelling for ours. <----THIS WOULD BE THE CORRECT USAGE
so E is out

Therefore B is correct. CORRECT VERB CORRECT PARALLELISM.

Thomas Eakins’ powerful style and his choices of subject—the advances in modern surgery, the discipline of sport, the strains of individuals in tension with society or even with themselves—was as disturbing to his own time as it is compelling for ours.

Issues: Verb form | S-V Agreement

Analysis:
1. The subject of the sentence is plural: 1) Thomas Eakins’ powerful style and 2) his choices of subject. Hence the verb immediately following "-" should be plural (Eliminate A and C)
- The form of the verbs should lead to a logical sentence. One effect occurs in past while another occurs in present and this meaning should be properly conveyed by the correct option

(A) was as disturbing to his own time as it is
- "was" and "it" do not agree with plural subject

(B) were as disturbing to his own time as they are

(C) has been as disturbing in his own time as they are
- "has" here ungrammatically refers to plural subject

(D) had been as disturbing in his own time as it was
- "had been" refers time before a past event which is incorrect here
- "it was" is illogical as "our" time exists in present and should have present tense form

(E) have been as disturbing in his own time as
- "have been as disturbing" distorts the intended meaning

Answer: (B)

Thomas Eakins’ powerful style and his choices of subject—the advances in modern surgery, the discipline of sport, the strains of individuals in tension with society or even with themselves—was as disturbing to his own time as it is compelling for ours.

(A) was as disturbing to his own time as it is
(B) were as disturbing to his own time as they are
(C) has been as disturbing in his own time as they are
(D) had been as disturbing in his own time as it was
(E) have been as disturbing in his own time as

GMATNinja How cold past tense "were" and present tense "are" coexist on the sentence?

Hi hazelnut ,

It is possible. We are comparing two things here:

1. What happened in the past
2. What is happening now.

Example, I am as intelligent as I was when I was 10 years old.

In the given sentence, we are basically saying the disturbing has not changed since Thomas Eakins' time.

Did you see the similar construction?

I hope that makes sense.

Complete agreement with abhimahna here. In real life, it's 100% normal to speak of different time periods in the same sentence, since we're constantly comparing the past to the present, or the present to the future.

On the GMAT, it's just a question of meaning: do the verb tenses correctly reflect the logical sequence of events? As long as the "mismatched" verb tenses align correctly to events in different time periods, it's all good.

I hope this helps!

daagh

Sir, could you pls help in understanding-

in his own time vs to his own time

GMATNinja - i got the same query. I thought in his own time was the right idiom.

To his own time makes it sound like he was jerk to his own time
where as In his own time makes it sound like back in the day, in his time he was a jerk.

I ended up eliminating A n B based on that.

Yeah, that's the trouble with idioms: they're arbitrary and sometimes subjective, so you can't always rely on them.

I actually agree with you in this particular case: "to his own time" seems odd to me in this context. But unless I'm 100% certain about the idiom, I won't make any eliminations based on it. I'll look for ANYTHING else that's more convincing, and will base my eliminations on a not-100%-certain idiom only if I absolutely have to. More on that here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 41848.html

And in case you didn't already see it, we also went through the verb tense issues in this question in last Wednesday's YouTube webinar, available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxANHcxwbeM

I hope this helps!