Although the Supreme Court ruled as long ago as 1880 that Blacks could

Question

Although the Supreme Court ruled as long ago as 1880 that Blacks could not be excluded outright from jury service, nearly a century of case-by-case adjudication  has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be  drawn from “a fair cross section of the community.”

(A) has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be
(B) was necessary for developing and enforcing the principle of all juries being
(C) was to be necessary in developing and enforcing the principle of all juries to be
(D) is necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be
(E) will be necessary for developing and enforcing the principle of all juries being

TIME September 28, 1981 | Vol. 118 No. 13

We, the Jury, Find the . . .   LINK 
By  Otto Friedrich   
Monday, Sept. 28, 1981

If the jury is fundamental to the U.S. system of justice, then it is clearly fundamental that the selection of jurors must also be just. Though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled as long ago as 1880 that the newly emancipated blacks could not be excluded outright from jury service, nearly a century of case-by-case adjudication  has been necessary to develop and enforce the court's principle that all juries must be  drawn from "a fair cross section of the community." And how is such a cross section to be determined? The traditional method was that "key men" in the community—bankers and merchants, for the most part—drew up lists of responsible citizens who would serve. Not until this past winter was the last such key-man system discarded, in New Hampshire, after a conviction based on it was overturned.

gorupruthi · Accepted Answer

I read a excellent explanation fr this question by someone on 1000 sc forum:

Analysis:
Verb Tense
- has been
- was
- was to be
- is necessary
- will be

It starts in the past and now in the present - Present Perfect Tense

Parallelism
- to develop and enforce
- for developing and enforcing
- in developing and enforcing
- to develop and enforce
- for developing and enforcing

Also, Subordinate clause
that Blacks could not be excluded outright from jury service

main clause
- that all juries must be
- of all juries being
- of all juries to be
- that all juries must be
- of all juries being

Idioms
- necessary for
- necessary to

B - out past tense, of juries being
C - out past tense, of all juries to be
E - out future tense, of all juries being

Between A and D
tense: has been vs. is
parallelism: both correct
Main vs. Subordinate: both correct
Idiom: necessary to both correct

A - past to present
D - present

A - Correct

ChrisLele · Answer

Although the Supreme Court ruled as long ago as 1880 that Blacks could not be excluded outright from jury service, nearly a century of case-by-case adjudication has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be drawn from “a fair cross section of the community.”

(A) has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be  ('has been', the present perfect, fits well with something that started 'nearly a century' ago and presumably continues today).  
(B) was necessary for developing and enforcing the principle of all juries being  ('being' is awkward). 
(C) was to be necessary in developing and enforcing the principle of all juries to be  ('was to be necessary' awkward)
 (D) is necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be  (because this action started at some point in the past, the use of 'is' is inappropriate).  
(E) will be necessary for developing and enforcing the principle of all juries being  ('being' is awkward)

icandy · Answer

decision was made in 1880

it took 100 years to completely implement

hence you need continous tense and answer choice A has it

ConkergMat · Answer

101. Although the Supreme Court ruled as long ago as 1880 that Blacks could not be excluded outright from jury service, nearly a century of case-by-case adjudication  has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be  drawn from “a fair cross section of the community.”
(A) has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be
(B) was necessary for developing and enforcing the principle of all juries being
 (C) was to be necessary  in developing and enforcing the principle of all juries to be
 (D) is necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be
(E) will be necessary for developing and enforcing the principle of all juries being

A is more precise than B. 
Multiple clues to eliminate B.
1. being...
2. the principle of

Note that you can easily frame a correct sentence even if the second part is in simple past tense.

hellscream · Answer

Although the Supreme Court ruled as long ago as 1880 that Blacks could not be excluded outright from jury service, nearly a century of case-by-case adjudication  has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be  drawn from “a fair cross section of the community.”

(A) has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be
Correct
(B) was necessary  for developing and enforcing  the principle of all juries being
 " to develop and enforce" is better 
(C) was to be necessary in developing and enforcing  the principle of all juries to be 
Awkward
(D) is necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be
Change the meaning : like a prediction
(E) will be necessary for developing and enforcing the principle of all juries being
Change the meaning of the sentence

shikhar · Answer

My Approach -->
Since the sentence can take multiple tense form depending on what it means so i did not rely on that.
 Principle must be followed by that

Although the Supreme Court ruled as long ago as 1880 that Blacks could not be excluded outright from jury service, nearly a century of case-by-case adjudication has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be drawn from “a fair cross section of the community.”

(A) has been necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be
(B) was necessary for developing and enforcing  the principle of all juries  being
(C) was to be necessary in developing and enforcing  the principle of all juries  to be
(D) is necessary to develop and enforce the principle that all juries must be
(E) will be necessary for developing and enforcing  the principle of all juries  being
 NOw in A and D ,
NEarly a century of cases indicates present continous so A.

PLEase correct me if i am wrong.

alchemist009 · Answer

i was stuck between A and D. finally picked A. the intended meaning of the sentence is that court ruled in 1880 that Black could not be excluded outright from Jury service. the second represents a flow of time-line by stating "century of case-by-case adjudication". So D is out. correct me if i am wrong

jitgoel · Answer

Can you explain why Being is not required overhere? I am really confuse in using of being. someone says that, Being is always worng in GMAT. Kindly clarify.

Wwdrok1 · Answer

Although this question is not directed to me, I will share what I know about this topic.

"being" is not always wrong in the GMAT. It is wrong in most cases (say 99% of the time) when not used correctly.

"Being" can be used as a noun, a verb, a participle adjective or adverb.

"being" is wrong here because it's been used as a verb without a preceding help verb (is, was been etc). 
You can say "this girl is being crazy" or "this boy was being whipped" but not "this girl being crazy".

Hope this helps.

pqhai · Answer

The intended meaning is "all juries   must be   drawn...". So B, C, E are out immediately. We need to keep the meaning of "MUST". Only A and D remain.

B -  all juries being  ==> Totally wrong.
C -  enforcing the principle of all juries to be drawn  ==> Wrong grammar & change meaning.
E -  all juries being  ==> Totally wrong.

A and D are contenders. However, D is wrong because of the simple tense. It's like " a century is necessary to do X and do Y....... ". it sounds ridiculous. 
The meaning here is after a long century of case-by-case adjudication......blah blah..... ==> The present perfect tense is correct.

Hence, A is correct.

dave785 · Answer

I don't like this question because the action DIDN'T occur over a particular time!

It only occured once!!

Nearly a century (subject) was needed (predicate) to ......

It's not as if a century was needed in 1880, and another century was needed in 1979... we only needed the century  once , in 1880. In 1881, we needed 99 years... 98 years after that, then 97... etc etc.

The actions that occur WITHIN that century, however, such as "to develop" and "to enforce" are ongoing.

B is wrong for idiomatic reasons, but the others are wrong grammatically.. so I picked B.

What is the source of this question?

ynk · Answer

I think B is wrong because of its tense.The situation stated in the question has started long ago and is still in continuation and has not ended yet.Hence the tense (Present perfect progressive) Has Been is perfectly suitable.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

sayantanc2k · Answer

Option B is wrong for 2 reasons:

1. For conveying an intent infinitive is a better choice. Hence "to develop and enforce" is better than " for developing and enforcing"
2. The usage "the principle of all juries being drawn" is wrong. The phrase implies that the principle belonged to the juries who were being drawn.

manhasnoname · Answer

Don't understand why D is incorrect. What does "century of" has to do with the verb tense??

Could someone please clarify? Thanks!

sayantanc2k · Answer

X is necessary to do Y: implies that the necessity is in the present.

X has been necessary to do Y: implies that the necessity has been there for some time.

"A century of" implies that the necessity has been there for a century - therefore "has been" is better than "is".

Option D implies that the necessity is from now to 100 years from now. Option A implies that the necessity has been from 1880 (or some point of time in the past) to 100 years from that point.

aragonn · Answer

Official Explanation: 
Choice A is best: has been appropriately refers to recently completed action. In B, was does not indicate that the action is recent. Also, necessary for developing . . .is less idiomatic than necessary to develop . . . , and principle of all juries being is less direct than principle that all juries must be. The to be infinitives make choice C incorrect. The present tense is in D and the future tense will be in E make these choices faulty.

Anhezjel · Answer

I picked A, even though I don't like one thing about it. Maybe somebody could clarify: Wouldn't the sentence be more correct with subjunctive i.e. "...principle that all juries be..."?

PyjamaScientist · Answer

I second your thought. "must" here is an auxiliary verb and as you have correctly pointed out due to the subjunctive mood used here, the author can do without "must" before "be". 
As this is a really old OG question, I believe we can take it with a grain of salt as we won't see any newer questions with such fallacy.

positionyou · Answer

Why present perfect? The action started in past continued for ~century( to get to some point) and finished. why not simple past?

Although the Supreme Court ruled as long ago as 1880 that Blacks could

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Although the Supreme Court ruled as long ago as 1880 that Blacks could

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