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jzqmah
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Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly Updated on: 14 Jul 2017, 19:59
Originally posted by jzqmah on 14 Jul 2017, 09:12.
Last edited by broall on 14 Jul 2017, 19:59, edited 2 times in total.
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91% (00:51) correct 9% (01:03) wrong based on 374 sessions

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Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly, citing the fact that the average temperature within the Arctic circle is already two degrees warmer than ten years ago.

A. two degrees warmer than ten years ago
B. warmer by two degrees than ten years ago
C. two degrees warmer than it was ten years ago
D. two degrees warmer than it had been ten years ago
E. warmer, two degrees so, than ten years ago

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Originally I choose D.

The answer key says "Past perfect “had been” cannot be used in the absence of another past tense event."
^can someone explain this further?

Can someone explain/show how "D" could be the right answer? Ex. with a past tense event
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Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly 14 Jul 2017, 22:26
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Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly, citing the fact that the average temperature within the Arctic circle is already two degrees warmer than ten years ago.

A. two degrees warmer than ten years ago -- than ten years ago is the wrong comparison
B. warmer by two degrees than ten years ago -- than ten years ago is the wrong comparison as in A

C. two degrees warmer than it was ten years ago --- correct
D. two degrees warmer than it had been ten years ago -- Past perfect is wrong since there is no simple past tense to mark sequence
E. warmer, two degrees so, than ten years ago ---- than ten years ago is the wrong comparison as in A and B
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Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly 14 Jul 2017, 23:07
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jzqmah
Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly, citing the fact that the average temperature within the Arctic circle is already two degrees warmer than ten years ago.

A. two degrees warmer than ten years ago
B. warmer by two degrees than ten years ago
C. two degrees warmer than it was ten years ago
D. two degrees warmer than it had been ten years ago
E. warmer, two degrees so, than ten years ago

Show Spoiler
Originally I choose D.

The answer key says "Past perfect “had been” cannot be used in the absence of another past tense event."
^can someone explain this further?

Can someone explain/show how "D" could be the right answer? Ex. with a past tense event
Show more

Simple Past is used to show that an action happened in past. Past Perfect is used to show sequence of two actions that happened in past.

In option D, author has mentioned only one action that happened in past. Thus use of Past perfect is Incorrect.
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Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly 04 Sep 2019, 03:17
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[quote="jzqmah"]Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly, citing the fact that the average temperature within the Arctic circle is already two degrees warmer than ten years ago.

A. two degrees warmer than ten years ago
B. warmer by two degrees than ten years ago
C. two degrees warmer than it was ten years ago
D. two degrees warmer than it had been ten years ago
E. warmer, two degrees so, than ten years ago

this is good to practice. there is one error in OA, temparature should be higher, not warmer. gmat can test us this point. but this point is not tested here.

a very interesting point is tested here.
the rule of ellipsis: keep the tense and mood (negative or affirmative) of the first clause when making ellipsis in the second clause.

according to this rule. choice A and B are
"than Arctic is ten years ago".
present tense "is" must be present in the phrase after "than", and , so, is not fit with "ten years ago".

so, we can not make ellipsis the way choice A and B do.
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Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly 04 Sep 2019, 05:25
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following from og2020, in which "it/they" is not neccessary because tense is the same in both sides of comparison. we need to know when only adverb of the second clause is kept and when "it/they+verb+adverb" is kept.

Most of the country’s biggest daily newspapers had lower circulation in the six months from October 1995 through March 1996 than a similar period a year earlier.


(A) a similar period

(B) a similar period’s

(C) in a similar period

(D) that in a similar period

(E) that of a similar period
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Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly 04 Sep 2019, 18:52
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jzqmah
Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly, citing the fact that the average temperature within the Arctic circle is already two degrees warmer than ten years ago.

A. two degrees warmer than ten years ago
B. warmer by two degrees than ten years ago
C. two degrees warmer than it was ten years ago
D. two degrees warmer than it had been ten years ago
E. warmer, two degrees so, than ten years ago

Show Spoiler
Originally I choose D.

The answer key says "Past perfect “had been” cannot be used in the absence of another past tense event."
^can someone explain this further?

Can someone explain/show how "D" could be the right answer? Ex. with a past tense event
Show more

D could be made grammatically correct by introducing a past tense event as follows:

"two degrees warmer than it had been before the sharp increase in fossil fuel burning ten years ago" <-- we need to have some kind of past event to position it where the time period indicated by the verb "had been" is not discrete.
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Biologists worry that the Arctic ecosystem will unravel quickly 25 Sep 2022, 02:29
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