Between –and / from-to are not such hair - splitting jargons; after all they mean the same thing almost. It is pointless to delve on that , since there are other clearly visible POEs in D and E. D says, 'could eat so much as' , while 'can eat as much as' is the correct expression. 'So much as' is used more in negative expressions as in: He doesn’t drink so much as his wife does. Note the negative connotation ‘doesn’t’. We would not write here, 'he doesn’t drink as much as his wife does'. In addition, 'could' is a problem vis-a-vis ‘can' in this context as can correctly indicates the whales' capacity, whether they do it or not.
E is a downright subject-pronoun mismatch as in A. Therefore, B is the royal answer without hassle
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Foraging at all times of the day and night, but interspersing their feeding with periods of rest that last between one and eight hours, sperm whales can eat as much as a ton of squid a day.

thangvietnam

Could is not correct/required here , please go through this post -

can-vs-could-25693.html#p171086

Hope this helps !!
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IMO B

D and E straight eliminated since from one to eight does not convey the intended meaning.
Intended meaning is that the period of rest can be between one hour to eight( not complete eight hour as conveyed by "from").

A & C are are out as "could" does not convey fact, it conveys possibility.

So there should be "can" instead of "could".

why c is wrong?
because could is used for past time.

we need to show a timeless action here, so , can is used

pls, help explain

Brother if you read closely, you will see that this sentence express a fact. Something that is true in current event. Therefore we have to use "can".

If intend of the sentence was to show any possibility i.e something expected to happened under some circumstances then "could" would be the right choice.

Interesting observation:

Sperm whales can eat as much as a ton of squid a day = Sperm whales can each eat as much as a ton of squid a day.

Is there possibly any exception to this rule?

Foraging at all times of the day and night, but interspersing their feeding with periods of rest that last between one and eight hours, sperm whales can eat as much as a ton of squid a day.

Can we use From and Between split too ?
Between A and B or From X to Y ?

No, this split cannot be used to eliminate options. Both idioms are correct.

Whale can rest any hour between 1 and 8 hours, so “from one to eight hours” is wrong. Eliminate D, E
Eliminate A as a sperm whale is wrong as we have “their feeding with”
now, the intent of above sentence is to state a fact and not a possibility. So, “can” should be used instead of “could”.
So, correct answer is B

Hello experts,
Is my understanding correct?

We use Could in order to show a Future act in the Past with reference to some other activity in the past. As there is no such Past activity in this sentence, Could is wrong, therefore we need to show the sentence as A Fact.

"Could" is the simple past tense of "can". Using past tense would imply that the whales could eat before (but may be now they can't). However this is a Universal truth and hence must be expressed in simple present.

(There is no need for reference to another verb in past - probably you mixed up "would" and "could".)

'Their' refers to sperm whales. Hence, A and E straight away out.
Correct usage of idiom here is 'as much as' instead of 'so much as' since the former indicates the quantity. Hence, D out.
'Could' refers to possibility while 'Can' indicates be able to. Hence, C out.
Correct option : B

the idiom is as much as and not so much as.

2 options left.

b)between one and eight hours, sperm whales can eat as
C) between one and eight hours, sperm whales could eat as

In C we have could. Could is simple past. But we are talking about present so Can is what is needed. Answer is B

thank you
"can" can be used to show ability, possibility and request at present.
"could" is past form of tense, it can be used for the above meaning in the past

the point is could can be use at present
it show
possibility
request, with more politeness and hesitance.

You only get down to B & C by POE , then look at C , as it uses "could" that changes the verb tense of the sentence , as would , could -> shows a hypothetical scenario .
Hence Option B , it is.
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The main issue here is the diffrence between can and could here.

Could is used when we are talking about something in the past .

Since this is a common trait that we are talking about so usage of could is right.

Note: between X and Y and from X to Y is not the entry point for this question which has been crafted very carefully to lure us.

Option C in the question is not as it is in OG. As per OG below is the right one (page:748)
(C) between one to eight hours, sperm whales could eat as

Bunuel please make the necessary change. Thank you.

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Edited. Thank you.
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Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, and find the correct choice as quickly as possible! This is a pretty straightforward question that focuses mainly on idioms and pronoun-antecedent agreement, so let's start by doing a quick scan over the options, and highlight the major differences in orange:

Foraging at all times of the day and night, but interspersing their feeding with periods of rest that last between one and eight hours, a sperm whale could eat so much as a ton of squid a day.

(A) between one and eight hours, a sperm whale could eat so
(B) between one and eight hours, sperm whales can eat as
(C) between one to eight hours, sperm whales could eat as
(D) from one to eight hours, sperm whales could eat so
(E) from one to eight hours, a sperm whale can eat so

After a quick glance over the options, we have a few things we can focus on:

1. between vs. from (idioms)
2. a sperm whale vs. sperm whales (pronoun-antecedent agreement)
3. so much as vs. as much as (idioms)

Let's take a look at #2 on our list first, since it deals with pronoun-antecedent agreement. If we look at the original sentence, we see that there is a pronoun that's not underlined:

Foraging at all times of the day and night, but interspersing their feeding with periods of rest that last between one and eight hours, a sperm whale could eat so much as a ton of squid a day.

This pronoun MUST match in number to its antecedent. It's a plural pronoun, so it should have a plural antecedent. Let's see how the options handle this:

(A) between one and eight hours, a sperm whale could eat so
(B) between one and eight hours, sperm whales can eat as
(C) between one to eight hours, sperm whales could eat as
(D) from one to eight hours, sperm whales could eat so
(E) from one to eight hours, a sperm whale can eat so

We can eliminate options A & E because they use a plural pronoun to refer to a singular antecedent, which doesn't agree!

Now that we've eliminated a couple options, let's deal with #1 & #3 on the list: idioms. There are two we need to focus on, so let's dive in!

(B) between one and eight hours, sperm whales can eat as

This is CORRECT! It uses the following idioms correctly:

between X and Y
X can eat as much as Y

(C) between one to eight hours, sperm whales could eat as

This is INCORRECT because the phrase "between X to Y" is NOT the correct way to phrase that idiom. It should be "between X and Y."

(D) from one to eight hours, sperm whales could eat so

This is INCORRECT because the phrase "from X to Y" isn't the right idiom to use here, and it's also not idiomatically correct to say "X can eat so much as Y."

There you have it - option B is the correct choice! Its pronoun and antecedent agree in number, and it uses the correct idiom structures throughout.


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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