Although decisive victories at Midway and in the Guadalcanal campaign

Question

Although decisive victories at Midway and in the Guadalcanal campaign  had raised hopes in a readily attainable Allied victory going against Japan , the fierce battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa forced the conclusion that defeating the Japanese home islands would be neither quick nor easy.

A. had raised hopes in a readily attainable Allied victory going against Japan
B. had raised hopes that an Allied victory against Japan was readily attainable
C. had raised hopes for there being Allied victory toward Japan that was a readily attainable
D. raised hopes that an Allied victory over Japan would be readily attainable
E. raised hopes in an Allied victory toward Japan as readily attainable

honchos · Answer

This is not a difficult question, but I later got confused. I have difficulty understanding the flow of this question.
Flow in terms of verb Sequencing. Can we discuss it in detail.

somil0912 · Answer

The use of 'had' is correct since we are talking about two events in the past. So, D and E are out.
Out of A, B and C, B seems the best option.

akhil911 · Answer

Can some expert throw light on this problem.
I am still not able to figure out why D is incorrect.

LighthousePrep · Answer

First, here is a great guide to verb tenses that I recommend: https://www.elihinkel.org/tips/tenses.htm https://i.imgur.com/CPrZ6rm.png Given that there are two past events, I think we should use the past perfect tense. Therefore we can eliminate answer choice D and E. Of the remaining answer choices: a) "going against Japan" doesn't fit c) "there being" and "toward" don't fit Correct answer: B

LaxAvenger · Answer

Although decisive victories at Midway and in the Guadalcanal campaign had raised hopes in a readily attainable Allied victory going against Japan, the fierce battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa forced the conclusion that defeating the Japanese home islands would be neither quick nor easy.

A. had raised hopes in a readily attainable Allied victory going against Japan
B. had raised hopes that an Allied victory against Japan was readily attainable
C. had raised hopes for there being Allied victory toward Japan that was a readily attainable
D. raised hopes that an Allied victory over Japan would be readily attainable
E. raised hopes in an Allied victory toward Japan as readily attainable

two past events here: victories at Midway and in the Guadalcanal campaign; and the fierce battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
The first event took place before the second --> first event had raised hope for a victory
Second event then raised doubt for a victory
we need the tense that describes that the first event took place before the second, hence options D and E are not suitable. These options suggest that the battles took place at the same time in the past.

gmatbender · Answer

A. had raised hopes in a readily attainable Allied victory going against Japan-- hopes are raised in a battle ( absurd meaning) 
B. had raised hopes that an Allied victory against Japan was readily attainable-- hopes are raised because troops think they can win. 
C. had raised hopes for there being Allied victory toward Japan that was a readily attainable being changes the meaning 
D. raised hopes that an Allied victory over Japan would be readily attainable-- Past perfect Tense is required to maintain timeline, as forced in underline portion is in simple past 
E. raised hopes in an Allied victory toward Japan as readily attainable--- Past perfect Tense is required to maintain timeline, as forced in underline portion is in simple past

daagh · Answer

Both past perfect and simple past reflect actions that were started and ended in the past. The nuance is to identify somehow which happened earlier and which later.

For a person who may not be aware of the course of the US-Japanese entanglements in the WW2, the past perfect tense is the only marker of the time reference. We may note that there is neither a word such as before, after, earlier, or later nor the times in which the belligerents engaged these battles. The past perfect tense' 'had risen' is the savior.

aragonn · Answer

Official Explanation 
Split #1: at the very beginning, “had raised” vs. “raised”. The former is in the past perfect tense, and the latter is in the simple past tense. We use the past perfect to indicate that one action happened before another action in the past. Here, the second action, “forced the conclusion” is a past action, and we want to emphasize that the victories that raised hope were well before this past action. Therefore, we need the past perfect. (A), (B), & (C) are correct on this, and (D) & (E) are wrong.

Split #2: the idiom with “hope.” The construction “hope for” is fine if the object of hope is just an ordinary noun: “high hopes for the new year”, “the crowd hopes for another home run”, etc. The construction “hope in” is suspect, and like “hope for”, would only work for ordinary nouns. Here, the object of hope is a whole long idea that requires a subject & verb to express: for this, we need a full “that”-clause: “hope that so-and-so does such-and-such.” In this context, we need the “that”-clause, which only (B) & (D) have.

For all these reasons, the best answer is (B).

800Dreamer · Answer

Hello Sir,

I dont understand why there is a sequence here. I thought the sentence is taking about 2 events. One raised the hopes and other doubted . Why cant these both events happen at the same time? 
Example if I say : My recent mock score raised my hopes to get a good score but my past mistakes made me feel otherwise.

Abhi13545001 · Answer

where do we have sequence of events in the following sentence? (both seems happening at the same time.)
And how to find such subtle differences?
experts please help.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Abhi13545001 ,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

The sequence of events here is the "decisive victories" raising hopes that an Allied victory against Japan was readily attainable and the "fierce battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa" forcing the conclusion that defeating the Japanese home islands would be neither quick nor easy. Put simply, two decisive victories raised hopes in something, and then two fierce battles led to a certain conclusion. In order to determine the correct sequence of events, you must understand exactly what meaning the sentence is conveying.

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

VerbalBot · Answer

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Although decisive victories at Midway and in the Guadalcanal campaign

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Although decisive victories at Midway and in the Guadalcanal campaign

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