Despite the influx of international aid to a particularly war-torn reg

I will go with option E.

Meaning: An influx of international aid to a war-torn region was not enough to provide food for many indigenous people. As a result, many[indigenous people] left home to travel west where other tribal groups historically had experienced fewer difficulties.
A big clue to solving this question is the word historically. Historically suggests an action or an account that already took place and is completed in the past. So it requires the past perfect tense. Only options D and E use the past perfect tense. Based on this we can eliminate A, B, and C.

Between D and E, let's look at the context of option D. Option D suggests that many[indigenous people] left home to travel west in search of tribal groups who had historically experienced fewer difficulties. It implies that the migrants left home to search for other tribal groups in the west. This changes the meaning of the sentence. It is not the other tribes that the migrants were searching for but rather the migrants were in search of a place where other tribal groups had experienced fewer difficulties. Based on this change in meaning, option D can be eliminated and we are left with option E as the answer.


Despite the influx of international aid to a particularly war-torn region of East Africa during the waning months of 2006, in early 2007, many indigenous people unable to find food left their home to travel west where other tribal groups historically [had] experienced less difficulties producing food, water, and land.

(A) their home to travel west where other tribal groups historically [had] experienced less difficulties
(B) home to travel west where other tribal groups historically [had] experienced fewer difficulties
(C) their home to travel west where other tribal groups historically [had] experienced fewer difficulties
(D) home to travel west in search of other tribal groups who historically had experienced fewer difficulties
(E) home to travel west where other tribal groups historically had experienced fewer difficulties

"There" is unnecessary. "Home" by itself conveys enough. In addition, 'their home' is not as generic as just 'home' and may weirdly mean that all of them lived in a single home.
Fewer is the correct diction in the place of "less".
Who' is a wrong relative pronoun to refer to groups In D.
'Had' is required to justify the word 'historically meaning that the West Africa was a better place to live from earlier. E is the best answer.
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left home --> . Wrong
left their home --> Correct.
So, B, D & E are out.

Between A & C, when comparing difficulties between two tribes, less is wrong, Fewer is correct.
So, A is out

IMO Option C

IMO E:
home to travel west where other tribal groups historically had experienced fewer difficulties

fewer difficulites is correct and their use is not correct

Despite the influx of international aid to a particularly war-torn region of East Africa during the waning months of 2006, in early 2007, many indigenous people unable to find food left [url]their home to travel west where other tribal groups historically experienced less difficultie[/url]s producing food, water, and land.

(A) their home to travel west where other tribal groups historically experienced less difficulties
(B) home to travel west where other tribal groups historically experienced fewer difficulties
(C) their home to travel west where other tribal groups historically experienced fewer difficulties
(D) home to travel west in search of other tribal groups who historically had experienced fewer difficulties
(E) home to travel west where other tribal groups historically had experienced fewer difficulties

IMO A the use of less difficulties is correct

Their correctly refers to people

In options D and E use of had is incorrect

Fewer is used with countable nouns hence used to eliminate all other options

Posted from my mobile device

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

There are three main issues being tested in this question.

(1) The phrase their home is redundant as the word their could be eliminated

(2) The phrase other tribal groups historically experienced (with its verb in the simple past tense) must be replaced with a phrase that uses the past perfect tense (i.e., historically had experienced). The past perfect tense must be used since we are dealing with two actions in the past where one action came before another (i.e., the historic ability to find food predated the decision to move). The word historically makes it clear that the ability to find food referred to the period of time before the individuals decided to move in 2007.

(3) The word less cannot be used with difficulties since difficulties can be counted and the proper word for countable items is fewer

A. the word their is redundant; the word less should be replaced by the word fewer; the simple past tense (experienced) should be replaced by the past perfect tense (had experienced)

B. the simple past tense (experienced) should be replaced by the past perfect tense (had experienced)

C. the word their is redundant; the simple past tense (experienced) should be replaced by the past perfect tense (had experienced)

D. many indigenous people...left home not in search of other tribal groups (as this option incorrectly states), but for land where other tribal groups historically had experienced fewer difficulties finding food

E. the unnecessary word their is properly eliminated; the past perfect tense is correctly used; the word fewer is used with countable items
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Hi GMATNinja,
I request you to kindly throw some light on this question with respect to past perfect tense and past tense. According to my understanding, if we can clearly discern two different times in which the actions occurred (here we can see that the two actions of facing difficulties and of moving to a different place are in two different times. Also, the word "historically" helps us demarcate the times.), we should be good to use the past tense in place of past perfect tense.

Kindly let me know if the case is different here.

Thanks
Aaditya

Hi @AjiteshArun/@egmat/@GMATNinjaTwo,
Can you guys help me here?

generis Arro44 zhanbo
I agree with the above contention, that the usage of HAD is not necessary here, "HISTORICALLY" in itself points to the fact that certain thing happened in the past.

Wy do we need *had*? *Historically* is enough to tell the timeline of action.

Can someone please help?

Posted from my mobile device

Yes, I agree. MGMAT indicates that if timeline can be established, there is no need to use past perfect tense.

Ex. "I locked the door before I left." instead of "I had locked the door before I left."

Here I feel that using "historically" is a textbook example of this. Can someone explain?

In case others have the same concern:
travel west: west here is used as adv...to/toward/in the west. So where is ok to refer to west. similar to in the park where....

The past perfect can be used in conjunction with a time-modifier.
An OA in the Verbal Review 2020:
The personal income tax did not become permanent in the United States until the First World War; before that time the federal government had depended on tariffs as its main source of revenue.
Here, had depended is modified by before that time.
For an explanation, check my second post here:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/although-the ... 91-20.html
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Despite the influx of international aid to a particularly war-torn region of East Africa during the waning months of 2006, in early 2007, many indigenous people unable to find food left their home to travel west where other tribal groups historically experienced less difficulties producing food, water, and land.

(A) their home to travel west where other tribal groups historically experienced less difficulties
(B) home to travel west where other tribal groups (had) historically experienced fewer difficulties
(C) their home to travel west where other tribal groups (had) historically experienced fewer difficulties
(D) home to travel west in search of other tribal groups who historically had experienced fewer difficulties
(E) home to travel west where other tribal groups historically had experienced fewer difficulties - Correct

IMO E.

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