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655-705 Level|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Parallelism|                                 
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 01 Jul 2022, 11:09
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AndrewN
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Are there other signs to eliminate the options If I don't know whether it should be appear to or appear as.

I eliminated (D) and (E) because "their relatively sudden disappearance during the paleolithic era indicates. Then, I guess the Neanderthals will go with appear rather than appeared. (please, correct if I am wrong)

I selected (C) because I have no idea why we have to use "have been". we just talk about some time in the past "equipped" can convey the meaning.
Hello, Tanchat. Sure, you can and should use other considerations if you are less certain about one. How about we put the question in front of us for reference?

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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.

(A) appear as equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path,

(B) appear to have been equipped to face 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,

(E) appeared to have been equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path,
Here, we can look at equipped for versus equipped to, and we can also consider the end, their path versus their paths. I might not use the latter to make a hard elimination, but the reference to a singular obstacle makes me think of a single path, not more than one, so I would harbor a doubt about answer choices (C) and (D). As luck would have it, (A) and (E) are the only two that use equipped for. You can see this idiomatic usage in phrases such as equipped for battle, but how, exactly, does someone equip for facing something? If nothing else, this should mark another serious doubt. The verb tense in (B) may prove confusing at first glance, but you should appreciate that someone in the present could be commenting on these human beings from the past, so appear is justified, and some past tense conjugation makes sense to describe the Neanderthals in their own time—they were (not are) equipped to face just about any obstacle. Note that equipped is not a complete verb without some form of to be here: it is just the latter half. The sentence is not describing Neanderthals equipping spears or anything. Rather, they were equipped for some challenge.

It is okay to be unsure about certain differences between answer choices, but you always want to give yourself an out by looking for an issue that you are comfortable working with. That said, this is a challenging question for a reason. Learn what you can from it before you move on.

Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew
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Clears up a lot on how there are many ways to a correct answer . However even though to have been sounded right to my ear , but I’ve read that the Present perfect is used for actions that started in the past and continue to the present or remain true to the present . Hence why I eliminated B at the first pass and never got back to it . Any help on how to avoid these traps ? Or is there a lack of basic foundations in my learning ?

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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 01 Jul 2022, 12:41
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Clears up a lot on how there are many ways to a correct answer . However even though to have been sounded right to my ear , but I’ve read that the Present perfect is used for actions that started in the past and continue to the present or remain true to the present . Hence why I eliminated B at the first pass and never got back to it . Any help on how to avoid these traps ? Or is there a lack of basic foundations in my learning ?
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Hello, SignUp. I am glad my post proved useful to you. I would urge you not to adopt an overly mechanical approach to SC. Sure, you do want to have some fundamentals down (such as subject-verb agreement), but you do not want to get so rigid with your application of grammatical tendencies that you close your mind to the possibility that there could be something you just do not know. So much of language is contextual, not like what we see in Quant problems here in the forum.

I recommend GMAT Ninja's Sentence Correction Resource Collection to anyone looking to push their performance to the next level. A meaning-based approach to SC will ultimately help you much more than a strictly interpreted grammar-based approach ever will.

Thank you for following up, and good luck with your studies.

- Andrew
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 25 Jan 2023, 06:49
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Between path vs paths, what is correct here? got confused here. Subject is singular because collective noun. so path is right?
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 25 Jan 2023, 06:50
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Between path vs paths, what is correct here? got confused here. Subject is singular because collective noun. so path is right?
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 25 Jan 2023, 07:24
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Between path vs paths, what is correct here? got confused here. Subject is singular because collective noun. so path is right?
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Good question. It is just the context here (no grammar).

Since the sentence is talking about obstacles in their path to survival, we are talking the path taken by the entire species and not individual paths chartered by individual members.
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 25 Jan 2023, 16:22
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Clears up a lot on how there are many ways to a correct answer . However even though to have been sounded right to my ear , but I’ve read that the Present perfect is used for actions that started in the past and continue to the present or remain true to the present . Hence why I eliminated B at the first pass and never got back to it . Any help on how to avoid these traps ? Or is there a lack of basic foundations in my learning ?

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Hello SignUp,

Hope you are doing well. I am not sure if you still have this doubt, but I feel that many test takers have the same confusion regarding the tense of "have been equipped". Hence, my explanation. :)

Most of the test takers look at the verb in the correct answer Choice B the way you have analyzed it. However, if we carefully look at the sentence, the verb for the subject "the Neanderthals" is "appear". Please note that "have been equipped" is NOT a verb because it is preceded by "to". The phrase "to have been equipped" is the direct object of the verb "appear". Since "to have been equipped" is NOT a verb, it CAN NOT have a tense. Only verbs have tenses. So, there is no question of the action of being equipped to be in the present context.

The point to note here is that in the structure, "appear to have been equipped", "appear" is the simple present tense verb, and the phrase "to have been equipped" presents an action that took place in the past. This is how this phrase works.


Hope this helps. :)
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 29 Jan 2023, 17:07
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"Neanderthals" is not a collective here; it's a plural. In any case, the subject of the sentence doesn't dictate whether any subsequent nouns we encounter are singular or plural. I'd use the meaning approach described by EducationAisle above.

However, that would only be if I needed to make this distinction. It's very important to notice the big structural and meaning issues in the question first. As soon as I get to "Neanderthals appear as equipped," I stop everything and look for a fix. ACD are immediately out, and so I literally never even read the word "paths." Since these answers are out for a clear reason, we don't have to assume that "paths" is inherently wrong; it's more that none of the answers that contain it are viable. We can still learn from studying other differences among the choices, but if someone is looking at path vs. paths when doing this question timed for the first time, I'd argue that they are not working the problem efficiently.
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 30 May 2023, 09:52
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EMPOWERgmatVerbal GMATNinja CrackverbalGMAT

What kind of verb is 'to have been'
I know that 'have been' is present participle meaning that the action has some influence even today, so how does this sentence's correct answer "appear to have been equipped' mean something different. It doesn't mean that this action has some influence today ,it is past tense.

But i dont understand how?
i have faced similar issue in other questions as well, I think. Please help
many thanks!


tejal777
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.


(A) appear as equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path,

(B) appear to have been equipped to face 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,

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


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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 30 May 2023, 11:41
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In this context, you can think of "to have been" as the infinitive "to be" shifted to the past:

If we were observing something current, we could say "They appear to be equipped." Since we are discussing something in the past, we shift to "They appear to have been equipped." It isn't the present perfect, but in some uses it gets called a "perfect infinitive."

So why use the infinitive at all? We need it to form the phrase "appear to be." Normally, we'd shift this to the past by changing the main verb: "She appeared to be happy." But in this case, the "appearance" is happening now. The only part we want to shift is when they were equipped. That's where "appear to have been" comes in.
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 03 Jun 2023, 09:53
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EMPOWERgmatVerbal GMATNinja CrackverbalGMAT

What kind of verb is 'to have been'
I know that 'have been' is present participle meaning that the action has some influence even today, so how does this sentence's correct answer "appear to have been equipped' mean something different. It doesn't mean that this action has some influence today ,it is past tense.

But i dont understand how?
i have faced similar issue in other questions as well, I think. Please help
many thanks!


tejal777
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.


(A) appear as equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path,

(B) appear to have been equipped to face 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,

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


Show Spoiler
Attachment:
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Attachment:
02.jpg
Show more

Hi yeloo!

"Have been" is indeed a form of the present perfect tense, which is typically used to connect past actions to the present.

However, in the phrase "appear to have been equipped," "have been equipped" isn't really referring to an action that is still having an influence today. Instead, it's being used to express the state or condition of the Neanderthals in the past from the perspective of the present.

Remember, on GMAT SC (while it still exists) is often about usage and meaning rather than just grammar rules. So while "have been" often implies ongoing relevance, context matters a lot. In this context, "appear to have been equipped" simply suggests that, based on current evidence, the Neanderthals seemed well-equipped in the past.
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 05 Nov 2023, 20:30
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Once the options are narrowed down to B & E - B is grammatically more sound. However, I saw the last line and it mentions "led to their extinction". So, apparently, the Neanderthals are extinct? And if they are, how can we use present "appear" (option B)?
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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 07 Nov 2023, 08:28
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Once the options are narrowed down to B & E - B is grammatically more sound. However, I saw the last line and it mentions "led to their extinction". So, apparently, the Neanderthals are extinct? And if they are, how can we use present "appear" (option B)?
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We aren't talking about a past tense appearing action done by the Neanderthals. (For example: "Tim was walking through the woods when a Neanderthal named Link suddenly appeared." Early 90s movie trivia, anyone?)

Instead, this sentence is describing how things currently appear to a present-day observer (based on evidence of the past). Here, have another example:

    "The squirrel appears to have died while trying to cross the street."

The squirrel may have died in the past, but we're talking about how things currently appear based on the evidence and whatever else we know.

For more on that point, check out these posts from earlier in the thread:

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Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Nea 13 May 2025, 20:23
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