A century of farming and development has changed the landscape of seve

Question

Project SC Butler: Day 139 Sentence Correction (SC1) 
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A century of farming and development has changed the landscape of several of the battlefields; the memorial project  plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during  the country’s civil war.

A) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during

B) plans reforming and reconstructing them as they were during

C) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they had been during

D) plans to reform and reconstruct them as if during

E) plans the reformation and reconstruction of them as during

XyLan · Accepted Answer

Sentence Structure  
 Subject  -  Verb  
 A century of farming and development   has changed  the landscape of several of the battlefields; 
 the memorial project   plans  to reform and reconstruct them(  battlefields  )
 as  they(  battlefields  )   were  during the country’s civil war.

Issues:  
 Could NOT find any errors.
Since I was looking for a singular pronoun, such as  it , to map to  the landscape of several of the battlefields , I was dicey about the usage of they ---to point to---> battlefields.
However, none of the options plays around on this part.
Thus, have to jump to answer choice analysis.

Answer choice analysis  
 A) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during
   Better than the rest.  A  is the winner.

B) plans  reforming  and  reconstructing  them as they were during
   The  intent  of the action MUST be written in To-verb form.

C) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they  had been during 
   The usage of past perfect tense in the absence of any other past-verb makes this option choice incorrect.
 Unsolicited  tense shift.

D) plans to reform and reconstruct them  as if during 
   Meaning issue: It implies that the memorial plans to reform and construct as if plans did during the country’s civil war.

E) plans the reformation and reconstruction of them  as during 
   As ---can be used to imply---> because/during/while. 
Thus the usage of  as  and  during  is incorrect.

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Day 139 Sentence Correction (SC1)

HIGHLIGHTS

• THEM?
-- them correctly refers to battlefields.
-- We do not need an IT to refer to the head noun of the noun phrase landscape of several of the battlefields.
The battlefields are the centerpiece. Landscape is generic.
-- many people believe that the object of a preposition cannot be the antecedent of a pronoun
I am not sure from what source that belief comes, but the belief is both prevalent and mistaken.
The antecedent of a pronoun can be the object of a preposition.

• PAST PERFECT? in the context of events in the past that are not conditional?
-- If two events happen in the past and one happened before the other, we use past perfect to talk about the earlier event
-- This tense is often called the "past of the past." First, though, there has to be a PAST: a simple past tense event.
-- In order to use past perfect, at least one event must be in simple past tense (or there must be time marker for that later, simple past tense event)
-- speakers of British English, be a little bit careful. Past perfect is used more frequently in B.E. than it is in SWE
(I would bet, though, that on this question, the native speakers got snagged.)

A century of farming and development has changed the landscape of several of the battlefields; the memorial project plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during the country’s civil war.

Quote:

A) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during

• looks fine

Quote:

B) plans reforming and reconstructing them as they were during

• what the heck does this thing say? To plan is TO intend to do something. I cannot even call these "progressive tenses" because "plans" is not a helping (auxiliary) verb.
• we need the infinitive to convey intent, this way: plans TO reform and TO reconstruct

Quote:

C) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they had been during

• the use of past perfect requires at least one event to be in simple past tense or a time marker that achieves the same result: a marked-off, discrete "stop" point in time, before which the past perfect had happened
• no event is rendered in simple past tense and no time marker exists

Quote:

D) plans to reform and reconstruct them as if [SUBJECT, VERB] during

• I am not sure what this AS IF phrasing is trying to achieve
• when used as a conjunction, the word AS should be followed by a clause with a subject and verb.
• "as if during" is nonsensical. As if battlefields WERE ?. . . something . . . DURING? the civil war?
• I'm lost. Not nearly as good as option A is. Eliminated.

Quote:

E) plans the reformation and reconstruction of them as during

• as during - I am not sure what this phrase is trying to do, either. Whatever the phrase is trying to do, it is failing.
• the reformation and reconstruction of the battlefields did not happen during the civil war, but that is what this "as during" phrase implies

The answer is A

COMMENTS

Peter2719 and Kinshook , welcome to SC Butler.

The big split here is between options A and C.
To use past perfect (other than in a Type 3 or Mixed conditional), we must see at least one event in simple past tense or a time marker that achieves the same result.

I keep testing this issue because it sneaks around in many disguises.

Xylan , I am bumping your post to Best Community Reply.

Other posts that contain full explanations range from good to excellent.
Posts that explain get kudos.

I am happy to have you all, newcomers and veterans alike.

The big split here is between options A and C. To use past perfect (other than in a Type 3 or Mixed conditional), we must see at least one event in simple past tense or a time marker that achieves the same result. I keep testing this issue because it sneaks around in many disguises.

Xylan , I am bumping your post to Best Community Reply. Other posts that contain full explanations range from good to excellent. Posts that explain get kudos. I am happy to have you all, newcomers and veterans alike.

amitanshumaity · Answer

A century of farming and development has changed the landscape of several of the battlefields; the memorial project plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during the country’s civil war.

Meaning--> Because of continuous farming and development the landscape of several battlefields were changed and the change is still taking place. ( Use of has changed suggests that)
In the next independent clause, it says a new project is proposed called the memorial and it plans to reform and reconstruct it back to a previous point of time( So, use of past perfect is apt to describe that past event i.e times of the country's civil war)

Structure: Two Independent clauses with a semicolon and it is correct.

We need to find a choice which corrects this tense issue.
Choice C corrects the issue.
IMHO C

Lampard42 · Answer

A) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during  Correct

B) plans reforming and reconstructing them as they were during  Requires to+verb to show purpose

C) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they had been during  "had been" past perfect is incorrect - No past tense

D) plans to reform and reconstruct them as if during  as if - incorrect, nonsensical meaning

E) plans the reformation and reconstruction of them as during as during - incorrect + requires to+verb

Kinshook · Answer

A) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during 
This is correct option.

B) plans reforming and reconstructing them as they were during 
plans to reform and reconstruct them was better in A. Incorrect

C) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they had been during 
Use of had been is incorrect since there is no corresponding past tense.

D) plans to reform and reconstruct them as if during 
as if during is incorrect

E) plans the reformation and reconstruction of them as during 
as during is incorrect

IMO A

Annet1524 · Answer

A century of farming and development has changed the landscape of several of the battlefields; the memorial project plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during the country’s civil war.

A) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during -   Correct choise

B) plans reforming and reconstructing them as they were during- when we want to speak about our goals we use infinitive form of the verb

C) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they  had been during    - no past tense here, so no needs for past perfect

D) plans to reform and reconstruct them as  if during   - when we use if construction we need to write full sentense, in this case we don't have verb

E) plans  the reformation    and reconstruction of them as during- when we want to speak about our goals we use infinitive form of the verb

Peter2719 · Answer

The correct answer is A. The major split here is plans to vs plans....

Plans to is idiomatic

Next this the u defined is preceded by a semicolon, so it must be an independent clause this gets you down to A and C. C uses the past perfect tense unnecessarily so it is out. Correct answer is is A.

Posted from my mobile device

J2S2019 · Answer

IMO correct answer is A

A century of farming and development has changed the landscape of several of the battlefields; the memorial project plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during the country’s civil war.

A) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they were during -  Correct choice.

B) plans reforming and reconstructing them as they were during -  to + verb is showing the correct intent of the project, hence verb+ing is not required here.

C) plans to reform and reconstruct them as they had been during -  Past perfect tense used with no two time shift indicated in past

D) plans to reform and reconstruct them as if during -  use of if is not required
 
E) plans the reformation and reconstruction of them as during -  as during is incorrect usage.

amuban · Answer

Option A is Correct. 
The pronoun them and they can clearly refer to the noun ( battlefields ). 
And the verb form  they were during  is clearly indicating the time frame. Simple Past tense will be the apt choice.

generis · Answer

I have posted the official explanation  HERE .

aj128 · Answer

A) CORRECT. This answer choice uses the right idiom and the correct verb tense

B) "plans reforming and reconstructing" is unidiomatic

C) Incorrect verb tense is used here.

D) Use of "as if" is redundant and makes the sentence meaningless.

E) "plans the reformation and reconstruction" is unidiomatic | Use of "as" is redundant

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A century of farming and development has changed the landscape of seve

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

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