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655-705 (Hard)|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Parallelism|                                 
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harshbirajdar
According to this logic, (C) can be a potential answer too. What am I missing?
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Hi harshbirajdar,

Appear as equipped is incorrect (1, 2). Also, option C uses the plural paths, which is not ideal given that we're looking at Neanderthals as a group.
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 10 Jun 2021, 19:40
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GMATNinja @VaritasKarishma Please help.

I am very confused with the 'to have been' in the correct answer doesn't it suggest that action is still continue? but Neanderthals are extinct so shouldn't it be just past tense?
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GMATNinja @VaritasKarishma Please help.

I am very confused with the 'to have been' in the correct answer doesn't it suggest that action is still continue? but Neanderthals are extinct so shouldn't it be just past tense?
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Hi VatsSaraf,

To have been is a perfect infinitive. Perfect infinitives are used to convey the same kind of meaning that you are looking for: past tense (or one of the perfect tenses). What's important to note here is that to have been (to + have + past participle) is not a complete verb. The rules that apply to complete verbs don't always apply to verb forms like infinitives.

Because they convey the same meaning as past or perfect tenses, perfect infinitives are very commonly used when we want to discuss (in the present) something that happened or was true in the past.

1. ... the Neanderthals appear to be equipped... ← Present infinitive ~ "it appears that the Neanderthals are equipped".
2. ... the Neanderthals appear to have been equipped... ← Perfect infinitive ~ "it appears that Neanderthals were equipped".
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 23 Jun 2021, 06:09
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Hi.

In option (B):
...appear to have been equipped to face any obstacle the environment could put in their path...
doesn't it seem as if the action of "Equipping" started in the past and going on till now (even if Neanderthals are dead now)!?
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 19 Sep 2021, 10:19
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Correct option : B

Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Neanderthals appear as equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path, but their relatively sudden disappearance during the paleolithic era indicates that an inability to adapt to some environmental change led to their extinction.

Elimination:
Eliminate A, and E
- Using wrong prepositional "for" with verb - "facing"
- in option A, appeared "as", it is a comparasion indicator, using "as" makes statement intended meaning demean.
- "appeared" is past tense, wrongly refered, makes sentence meaning ambiguity
(A) appear as equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path,
(E) appeared to have been equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path

Eliminate option C, and D
- appear "as" - as mentioned in flaw for A
- Usage of Prepositional "To" incorrect as per required intented meaning
- Paths - plural, to singular the "Neanderthals" - SV Error
(C) appear as equipped to face any obstacle the environment could put in their paths,
(D) appeared as equipped to face any obstacle the environment could put in their paths,

Left with correct option : B
(B) appear to have been equipped to face any obstacle the environment could put in their path,
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 20 Sep 2021, 20:58
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Correct option : B
Eliminate A, C, and D
- "As" is a comparison degree indicator
- Preposition "for" is used for a reason to decribe, wrongly refer to verb "facing", make "equipped for" wrong
- Tense error -"appeared"
(A) appear as equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path,
(C) appear as equipped to face any obstacle the environment could put in their paths,
(D) appeared as equipped to face any obstacle the environment could put in their paths,

Eliminate : E, for tense error, and equipped for
(E) appeared to have been equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path

Good Choice: B
(B) appear to have been equipped to face any obstacle the environment could put in their path,
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 27 Sep 2021, 09:28
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egmat

Hi Alexander,

Here goes the answer to your question:

Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Neanderthals appear as equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path, but their relatively sudden disappearance during the Paleolithic era indicates that an inability to adapt to some environmental change led to their extinction.


Neanderthals existed in the past. They do not exist anymore. But the way this sentence has been written, it suggests that they still exist. They “appear” as equipped…. This is the flaw in this sentence. We need a verb that suggests that Neanderthals are extinct.


Now let’s see the sentence with the correct answer choice:


Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Neanderthals appear to have been equipped to face any obstacle the environment could put in their path, but their relatively sudden disappearance during the Paleolithic era indicates that an inability to adapt to some environmental change led to their extinction.


This choice corrects the verb tense error in the original sentence. Verb phrase “appear to have been equipped” correctly suggests that Neanderthals when alive were equipped to face any environmental problem. They were equipped at that time.


If choice B were worded as “appear to be equipped to face…”, it would be incorrect because again it would convey the same meaning as Choice A.

Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Hi Shraddha.

Thanks for the explanation, But I have a doubt regarding "to have been equipped", isn't it is a to + verb, denoting "intention", Now it looks like someone intentionally equipped them with something, but that's not the meaning right?
That's why I ignored, all the sentences containing "to have been equipped"

Please help me to understand, what exactly I am missing?

Thanks & Regards
Sid
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egmat

Hi Alexander,

Here goes the answer to your question:

Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Neanderthals appear as equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path, but their relatively sudden disappearance during the Paleolithic era indicates that an inability to adapt to some environmental change led to their extinction.


Neanderthals existed in the past. They do not exist anymore. But the way this sentence has been written, it suggests that they still exist. They “appear” as equipped…. This is the flaw in this sentence. We need a verb that suggests that Neanderthals are extinct.


Now let’s see the sentence with the correct answer choice:


Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Neanderthals appear to have been equipped to face any obstacle the environment could put in their path, but their relatively sudden disappearance during the Paleolithic era indicates that an inability to adapt to some environmental change led to their extinction.


This choice corrects the verb tense error in the original sentence. Verb phrase “appear to have been equipped” correctly suggests that Neanderthals when alive were equipped to face any environmental problem. They were equipped at that time.


If choice B were worded as “appear to be equipped to face…”, it would be incorrect because again it would convey the same meaning as Choice A.

Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Hi Can someone pls help me with my below doubt -

I understand in this question as "have been equipped" comes after 'to' so it is not a verb .

But I also read in another @e-gmat article that even if hypothetically 'have been equipped' was a verb it would be present perfect tense and not present perfect continuous tense. Can someone explain to me why please.

Is it because for present perfect continuous we need have been <Verb in ing form> and as that is not the case so this is present perfect .

If above is true , can you explain how 'been' is correctly used in the above present perfect
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 09 Jan 2022, 00:42
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KARISHMA315

I understand in this question as "have been equipped" comes after 'to' so it is not a verb .
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That's correct KARISHMA315. "to have been equipped" is called "perfect infinitive". Please refer to this post for details.

Quote:
Is it because for present perfect continuous we need have been <Verb in ing form> and as that is not the case so this is present perfect .
Show more

Yes, all "continuous" forms would have Verbing form.

Quote:
If above is true , can you explain how 'been' is correctly used in the above present perfect
Show more
Basically, present perfect has the following structure:

has/have + past participle

"been" is the past participle of "to be".

So, it's like this:

John is sick.
- Simple present

John was sick.
- Simple Past

John has been sick.
- Present perfect

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Present perfect tense, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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KARISHMA315
egmat

Hi Alexander,

Here goes the answer to your question:

Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Neanderthals appear as equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path, but their relatively sudden disappearance during the Paleolithic era indicates that an inability to adapt to some environmental change led to their extinction.


Neanderthals existed in the past. They do not exist anymore. But the way this sentence has been written, it suggests that they still exist. They “appear” as equipped…. This is the flaw in this sentence. We need a verb that suggests that Neanderthals are extinct.


Now let’s see the sentence with the correct answer choice:


Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Neanderthals appear to have been equipped to face any obstacle the environment could put in their path, but their relatively sudden disappearance during the Paleolithic era indicates that an inability to adapt to some environmental change led to their extinction.


This choice corrects the verb tense error in the original sentence. Verb phrase “appear to have been equipped” correctly suggests that Neanderthals when alive were equipped to face any environmental problem. They were equipped at that time.


If choice B were worded as “appear to be equipped to face…”, it would be incorrect because again it would convey the same meaning as Choice A.

Hope this helps. :-)
Thanks.
Shraddha



Hi Can someone pls help me with my below doubt -

I understand in this question as "have been equipped" comes after 'to' so it is not a verb .

But I also read in another @e-gmat article that even if hypothetically 'have been equipped' was a verb it would be present perfect tense and not present perfect continuous tense. Can someone explain to me why please.

Is it because for present perfect continuous we need have been <Verb in ing form> and as that is not the case so this is present perfect .

If above is true , can you explain how 'been' is correctly used in the above present perfect
Show more

Hello KARISHMA315,

We hope this finds you well.

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

Here, the use of the present perfect continuous tense would be incorrect because this tense is used to refer to actions that began in the past and continue into the present, and since Neanderthals are extinct, naturally, we cannot say that they continue to be equipped to face any obstacle.

Further, the use of "have been" is correct, as a present perfect tense verb has been utilized in the passive voice. "have been" is used in both present perfect continuous verb phrases and in the passive version of present perfect verb phrases.

For example: "Rose has fixed the pipes." versus "The pipes have been fixed by Rose."

The key to distinguishing between the two usages is that the present perfect continuous tense always features the present participle ("verb+ing"), and the present perfect tense, whether passive or active, features a past particle.

For example: "Rose has fixed the pipes." (present perfect) versus "Rose has been fixing the pipes." (present perfect continuous).

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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KARISHMA315

I understand in this question as "have been equipped" comes after 'to' so it is not a verb .

That's correct KARISHMA315. "to have been equipped" is called "perfect infinitive". Please refer to this post for details.

Quote:
Is it because for present perfect continuous we need have been <Verb in ing form> and as that is not the case so this is present perfect .

Yes, all "continuous" forms would have Verbing form.

Quote:
If above is true , can you explain how 'been' is correctly used in the above present perfect
Basically, present perfect has the following structure:

has/have + past participle

"been" is the past participle of "to be".

So, it's like this:

John is sick.
- Simple present

John was sick.
- Simple Past

John has been sick.
- Present perfect

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Present perfect tense, its application and examples in significant detail. If you or someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
Show more


Thanks a lot !!!!
So in this case as the main verb of the sentence is "appears" in present tense , the perfect infinitives indicates the the event happened before (so the equipped part is before )?
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KARISHMA315
So in this case as the main verb of the sentence is "appears" in present tense , the perfect infinitives indicates the the event happened before (so the equipped part is before )?
Show more
That seems correct.

Incidentally, hope you noticed that the example mentioned in our book (of perfect infinitive) is actually based on the sentence that is being discussed in this thread.

The example is:

Farmers in Neolithic era appear to have adopted permanent settlement for the first time in human history.
- to have adopted is perfect infinitive.

Again, notice that the main verb appear is simple present. Hence, perfect infinitive acts as simple past in the above sentence, appropriately suggesting that the act of adopting permanent settlement happened in the past.
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea Updated on: 07 Mar 2022, 14:53
Originally posted by jabhatta2 on 04 Mar 2022, 20:19.
Last edited by jabhatta2 on 07 Mar 2022, 14:53, edited 15 times in total.
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GMATGuruNY

To express a general truth, we use the SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE.
In the non-underlined portion, the usage of indicates -- simple present tense -- makes it clear that the intent is discuss a GENERAL TRUTH about the Neanderthals and their disappearance.
For this reason, the two main verbs must be in the simple present tense, as follows:
The Neanderthals APPEAR to have been equipped, but their disappearance INDICATES...an inability.
Show more

Hi GMATGuruNY - In th red - you mention APPEAR and INDICATES are a GENERAL TRUTH and THUS, BOTH VERBS HAVE TO BE in the present tense. I dont see why APPEAR and INDICATES have to be simeltenously taking place in the present tense.

Specifically - i thought it is possible that APPEAR be in the past tense even though INDICATE is a general truth.

Reason -

If you read the green per my screenshot , it essentially says - whatever is mentioned in the yellow modifier specifically is factually wrong.

Thus -- i thought the verb APPEAR could be in the present tense or could be in the past tense. Why ?

Well, we dont know if Neanderthals still "Appear that way" in the present tense because that appearance has been proved to be factually wrong.

Its possible that Neanderthals NO LONGER APPEAR that way (in the present tense), they did APPEAR a specific way in the past.
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^^ GMATGuruNY

As an analogy - which makes more logical sense -- appeared or apears ?

Quote:

Analogy : The earth (APPEARED/APPEARS) to have been born 5 billion years ago but Research X prooves that Earth was born 2 billion years ago.
Show more

I would say APPEARED makes as much sense as APPEARS does. Because the modifier in the yellow is prooven to be factually wrong because of Research X - - Hence earth NO LONGER appears to have been born 5 billion years ago (ever since reearch x prooved that thikning wrong)

Thoughts ?
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jabhatta2
^^ GMATGuruNY

As an analogy - which makes more logical sense -- appeared or apears ?

Quote:

Analogy : The earth (APPEARED/APPEARS) to have been born 5 billion years ago but Research X prooves that Earth was born 2 billion years ago.

I would say APPEARED makes as much sense as APPEARS does. Because the modifier in the yellow is prooven to be factually wrong because of Research X - - Hence earth NO LONGER appears to have been born 5 billion years ago (ever since reearch x prooved that thikning wrong)

Thoughts ?
Show more

Hello jabhatta2,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, this observation is not exactly correct.

If we use the simple past tense for one verb, we would also have to use it for the other; if we say that the Earth once appeared to have been born 5 billion years ago but does not appear so any longer, then the action of proving that thinking wrong must have already concluded.

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

Was also curious what GMATGuruNY - thought about the original question

Original question here
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jabhatta2
Thanks so much !

Was also curious what GMATGuruNY - thought about the original question

Original question here
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If the intended meaning of the original sentence is logical, then the correct answer should retain that meaning.
In the original sentence, the usage of appears -- simple present tense -- serves to convey the following general truth:

To a modern-day observer, the Neanderthals APPEAR to have been equipped to face any obstacle.
The reality, however, is something different.
The Neanderthals were in fact unable to adapt to some environmental change.
In other words, APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEIVING.
Although the Neanderthals appear to have been well-equipped, they in fact were not.

In changing appears to appeared, D and E fail to convey a general truth about how the Neanderthals APPEAR and thus distort the intended meaning of the original sentence.
Eliminate D and E.
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 07 Mar 2022, 15:02
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GMATGuruNY
....
The Neanderthals were in fact unable to adapt to some environmental change.
In other words, APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEIVING.
Although the Neanderthals appear to have been well-equipped, they in fact were not.
........
Show more

Hi GMATGuruNY - thanks so much for your response. Just focussing on the yellow above - I agree with what you said.

Neanderthals appear to have been well-equipped, they in fact were not well equipped.

I then said -- well -- the moment, that fact is established - The next second, Neanderthals stop appearing to have been well equipped

Once that fact (that they were not well equipped) is established, Neanderthals stop appearing to be well-equipped.

Hence i thought -- well, 'appeared' MUST make sense in the past tense.

Thoughts ?
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Once that fact (that they were not well equipped) is established, Neanderthals stop appearing to be well-equipped.
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The statement above is incorrect.

to appear X = to give the impression of being X
John appears successful does not mean that John actually IS successful.
It simply means that John gives the IMPRESSION of being successful.
He might in fact be a failure.

OA: Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Neanderthals appear to have been equipped to face any obstacle.
The statement above conveys the following meaning:
With their enormous strength and extreme intelligence, the Neanderthals GIVE THE IMPRESSION that they were equipped to face any obstacle.
That an environmental change led to their extinction is irrelevant.
It remains true that -- given their enormous strength and extreme intelligence -- they still GIVE THE IMPRESSION that they were equipped to face any obstacle.
In other words:
The Neanderthals APPEAR to have been equipped.
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 12 Mar 2022, 17:37
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Hi ExpertsGlobal5 & @e-gmat

Can someone please explain the "have been equipped" to me? When I see this, I see the present perfect, something occurring in the past and continuing into the present. I see comments mentioning that the have been equipped is showing something that only happened in the past and acting like past perfect, something occurring in the past and ending before another point in time. Are we stating that even today Neanderthals seemed like they were equipped or am I misunderstanding this concept?

Thanks in advance!
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