A majority of observers interviewed see the Middle East as unstable at

Question

A majority of observers interviewed see the Middle East as unstable at present but  that it will, or could,  become less volatile in the future.

(A) that it will, or could, 
(B) that it would, or could, 
(C) it will be or could 
(D) believe that it will be or could 
(E) think the Middle East would or could

GMATNinja · Accepted Answer

On the right track, LakerFan24! In choice (E), the verb "think" (A majority of observers  think  the middle east...) is in the present tense and thus should not be followed by the conditional ("would become"); instead, the future tense ("will become") should be used. Consider the following examples involving multiple tense:

Correct: I think the test will be easy. (present + future)
Incorrect: I think the test would be easy. (present + conditional)
Correct: I thought the test would be easy. (past + conditional)
Incorrect: I thought the test will be easy. (past + future)

Thus, choice (E) needs to be eliminated because of the incorrect use of multiple tenses.

VATutor · Answer

Yeah, it's tricky. "Would" is only used for past tense or for conditional -- not for for simple present or simple future. "Could," on the other hand, can be used in the present or future tense (in addition to the past and the conditional). For example, the sentence, "Bill could be the ugliest person alive." is in the present and makes sense (present possibility), but "Bill would be the ugliest person alive." is incomplete and incorrect; for the second sentence to work we need to add a conditional or an indication that the sentence is in the past, such as, "Bill would be the ugliest person alive, if Tom, the current titleholder, died."(conditional) or "As a child, Bill had no idea he would one day become the ugliest person alive." (past tense) So, "could" and "would" are not necessarily parallel even though they sound alike. Since this question's sentence is clearly not in the past or conditional, then "would" can not be used. (Btw, no offense to any Bill or Tom out there)

VATutor · Answer

Hi,
Our answer should start with a verb because a parallel sentence should read... Observers  see  (one thing) but  (believe/think)  something else for the future.

Hope that helps.

vinzycoolfire · Answer

Even my first instinct was to choose D but what about the "will be"? if u take the ",or could" part the sentence will read as "it will be become less..". is this correct??

VATutor · Answer

"it will be become less" would definitely be wrong. 
In this sentence you can take out "or could become" and our sentence reads, "...will be less volatile...", which is fine. Notice that in D there are no commas, so we are not restricted to only removing "or could."

reva · Answer

but in D could is also used which is past form of verb and in E COULD AND WOULD are parallel. please correct me if i am wrong

VATutor · Answer

No problem, thanks for the Kudos!

thangvietname · Answer

I think E is better
D change the tenses, will and could are different.

Sachinrpat · Answer

Please help to answer below two questions:
- Is clause "X believes that ABC will be become less volatile" correct?
- Can we use would and could here? I think 'could' looks ok but not sure about 'would'.

thanks in advance!

sayantanc2k · Answer

First, "will be become" does not make sense - it should be "will become". In Option D "will be" and "could become" are parallel (i.e.  will be less volatile  or  could become less volatile ).

Now, coming to your question about "would" and "could":

"Would" may indicate a hypothetical event in future.
"Could" may indicate an event (in future) that is possible but not certain.

The word "believe" already indicates a hypothesis. Therefore use of "would" with "believe" is redundant... "beliveve that + will" is correct.

However, "could" can go with "believe" because one may believe that an event is possible, but not certain.

(Note: "believed that + would" is also correct - here "would" does not imply a hypothetical case but is used as the past tense of "will".)

mihir0710 · Answer

Hi  sayantanc2k  Sir,

I too did not pick option D, because of "will be become" ..

If the option D here is not a typo error, what should be the correct answer then ?

LakerFan24 · Answer

For me it was also clearly between D & E.

I picked "D" and here's a big reason why: "E" repeats "Middle East". I've noticed that, on some hard questions, GMAT would prefer using a pronoun than rewrite the same noun more than one time in a sentence.

Verbal Experts, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, when I was confirming my choice, I notice the sentence is predicting some future event. Since this is the case, "will" is preferred to "would". "Would" is primarily used for hypotheticals, whereas "will" is a strong verb that indicates something to happen in the future.

Kudos if you find helpful

techiesam · Answer

My question is "A majority of observers" is singular or plural.According to the question its plural (verb :see) ,Is it plural because of "a number of vs the number of " rule or is it a typo?

gmatassassin88 · Answer

GMATNinja : Does not the same rule applies to 'could'. should not 'could' be replaced with 'can' .
Please clarify difference between 'Could' & 'Can' both grammatical usage & meaning context.

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

(A) that it will, or could, 
too many commas is distorting the meaning

(B) that it would, or could, 
will is prefered since the future is what we are predicting

(C) it will be or could 
something before it would better convey the message

(D) believe that it will be or could 
The meaning is perfect the usage of will is therefore let us hang on to it

(E) think the Middle East would or could
Will is required in the usage therefore out

Therefore IMO D

VIGHNESHKAMATH · Answer

I have one query, please let me know if usage of pronoun after the conjunction ''but'' or any other FANBOYS is must to introduce a clause? Or pronoun can be eliminated as it is done in Option E?

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  VIGHNESHKAMATH ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, in Option E, "but" does not introduce a clause; rather, "but" is used to link the two verb phrases "see the Middle East as unstable at present" and "think the Middle East...in the future".

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

Pankaj0901 · Answer

A lame question - In the given official sentence, why do we have   COULD   instead of  CAN , just as we have WILL instead of WOULD, to indicate future? (I understand there is no "can" in any of the option choices.)

Request someone to please throw some light, as I couldn't find details on CAN vs COULD in any of the explanations. Thanks

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Pankaj0901 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, "would" and "could" are used to refer to hypothetical future actions, and the use of "think" in this sentence indicates that the sentence refers to a hypothetical.

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

A majority of observers interviewed see the Middle East as unstable at

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