Beleive (x) to be (Y)

Question

The Line of descent of apes and human is beleived my most paleontologists  that it split  into several branches some time between 20 million and 5 million years ago

(A) that it split
(B) To have split
(C) To split
(D) That they were split
(E) to be split

venksune · Answer

Thanks for the clue E it is.

mbassmbass04 · Answer

ETS like the idom Beleive X to Be Y

This question has been written by ETS back in the early 90's

the source is Vstudy books assembled by Chinese people.

If we read the question well, the action happened 20 million and 5 million ago, so it is a PAST TENSE SITUATION

In fact the answer can't be E, because E uses the present tense,

 The correct answer is B, but is it the correct idom ?

venksune · Answer

I am sorry, i think I did not see the sentence properly and got influenced on the idiom issue. I think there is no idiom tested here and its purely a verb tense issue as rightly pointed out by you.

ex. look at this sentence 'The chordates are  believed to have  descended from echinoderm-like ancestors'

another ex.: List of people  believed to have  been affected
by bipolar disorder...
or
He is  believed to have been  at the controls of Flight 11 
or
Confucius was  believed to have  been born in 551 BC

Paul · Answer

Yes, this is just a verb-tense agreement issue
idiom is indeed "believed X to be Y" but present perfect "believed X to have split" is perfectly fine provided that context is set in the past as the many examples that venksune gave. I read quickly the answer post and thought E was the answer and I was shocked until I re-read and saw that it was really B.

Beleive (x) to be (Y)

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