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EtaCarnia
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According to a continuous study conducted by the NASA's Goddard instit Updated on: 09 Jan 2022, 13:21
Originally posted by EtaCarnia on 09 Jan 2022, 13:03.
Last edited by Bunuel on 09 Jan 2022, 13:21, edited 2 times in total.
Renamed the topic and edited the question.
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85% (hard)

Question Stats:

23% (01:07) correct 77% (01:21) wrong based on 96 sessions

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According to a continuous study conducted by the NASA's Goddard institute, the global average temperature has been trending higher since 1988, a trend that was attributed to climate change.

A. has been trending higher since 1988, a trend that was attributed to climate change.

B. had been trending higher since 1988, a trend that was attributed to climate change.

C. have been trending higher since 1988, a trend that was attributed to climate change

D. were trending higher since 1988, a trend that has been attributed to climate change

E. have been trending higher since 1988, a trend that has been attributed to climate change

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E
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IanStewart
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According to a continuous study conducted by the NASA's Goddard instit 09 Jan 2022, 13:33
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What is the source? No answer is right, though answer A is the only one that's close. The subject of the verb is "temperature", which is singular, and answers C, D and E all use plural verb forms, so they're all wrong. There's also no justification for saying "had been trending" since temperatures are still increasing, leaving A as the only option that uses the right verb form.

It's a fundamentally strange sentence, because it essentially says "the climate is changing, a trend that is attributed to climate change", when it surely means to say that the change is attributable to fossil fuel emissions.
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According to a continuous study conducted by the NASA's Goddard instit 09 Jan 2022, 22:23
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Hi IanStewart

This is one of the practice question from GmatWhiz. They say it's a 650-700 level question . I could not understand their line of reasoning for the correct answer. That's why i posted this question here.
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According to a continuous study conducted by the NASA's Goddard instit 10 Jan 2022, 09:46
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Thanks for the information about the source. I didn't see that the question had an OA attached before, but if the question is transcribed correctly and that's the OA the source provides, it's just not right. I can't even imagine how an explanation could try to justify it.
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According to a continuous study conducted by the NASA's Goddard instit 10 Jan 2022, 10:15
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Since, I couldn't find any suitable answer, I tried to eliminate the most improbable ones.
'global temp...has' feels correct, but 'was attributed' seems wrong. Long back we reasoned climate change, but we r not doing now? So, kept 'A' on hold.
Next, eliminated B & D bcoz of 'had been' & 'were'. Present perfect is required. Hence, A, C and E remains.
In C also, same 'was attributed'. So, A is better than C atleast.
But E says 'has been attributed'. Now this part seems ok to me. SO, by making hell of an assumption that 'global temp' - by anyway- a plural entity, which I may not be knowing, I marked E.

**I know my reasoning are full of flaws. But still .. :P :P **
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According to a continuous study conducted by the NASA's Goddard instit 13 Jan 2022, 00:53
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A. has been trending higher since 1988, a trend that was attributed to climate change. -> tense error

B. had been trending higher since 1988, a trend that was attributed to climate change. -> since there is no end date for the trend provided, so past tenses cannot be used

C. have been trending higher since 1988, a trend that was attributed to climate change -> tense error

D. were trending higher since 1988, a trend that has been attributed to climate change -> tense error

E. have been trending higher since 1988, a trend that has been attributed to climate change -> SV agreement error but the only option that uses present tense, hence, marked E
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According to a continuous study conducted by the NASA's Goddard instit 14 Jan 2022, 05:10
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Global average temp since 1988: means list of all the temp hence plural form shall be taken ie have not has . And between C and E, C writes the last sentence in simple past: totally incorrect! ,,, that is why I chose E !

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According to a continuous study conducted by the NASA's Goddard instit 21 Jan 2022, 17:20
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Kapil1650
Global average temp since 1988: means list of all the temp hence plural form shall be taken ie have not has .
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Perhaps that's how the source justifies the answer, but an average is a single quantity, not a plural quantity. If the question is transcribed correctly and lists E as the answer, it is simply wrong, and I'd suggest using a source that is more reliable. There are more than enough official questions available to practice from these days, thankfully, and those are all good.

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