GMAT CLUB OLYMPICS: Over the past ten years, the National Endowment fo

Question

Over the past ten years, the National Endowment for the Arts  has also awarded nearly  five million dollars to organizations providing healing arts services to military service members, older adults, and youth with physical or mental challenges.

A. has also awarded nearly
B. has been awarded up to
C. has awarded up to
D. has been awarding nearly
E. has awarded nearly

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

Explanation

Choice A: No. The conjunction  also  is not required by the sentence.

Choice B: No. The National Endowment for the Arts is the giver of the award, not the recipient. To describe a large but inexact amount of money, use “nearly XYZ dollars,” not “up to XYZ dollars.” The latter phrase is used to describe fixed limits.

Choice C: No. Use “nearly” 5 million dollars, not “up to” 5 million dollars.

Choice D: No. The phrase “During the last ten years” requires present perfect ( has awarded ).  During the last ten years  signals an event that began in the past and continues into the present or still affects the present. Such an event should be described by the present perfect tense, which “bridges” past and present. Present perfect = HAS/HAVE + past participle. This option improperly uses the present progressive/continuous verb tense.

Choice E: Yes.  This sentence eliminates the superfluous conjunction  also  and captures the intended meaning of the sentence.

The correct answer is choice E.

neutronstar · Answer

Over the past ten years, the National Endowment for the Arts  has also awarded nearly  five million dollars to organizations providing healing arts services to military service members, older adults, and youth with physical or mental challenges.

we have 'awarded to organisations' i.e. active voice. We cannot convert it into passive for sure as non underline portion has 'to organisations'

A. has also awarded nearly - why also is required?
B. has been awarded up to -  passive  , Meaning issue - is it National Endowment for the Arts been awarded? or it it other organisations that have been awarded by National Endowment for the Arts? 
C. has awarded up to -  up to is wrong as it can mean even 1 million. But intended meaning in option A is approximately 5 million. 
D. has been awarding nearly  passive 
E. has awarded nearly -  tense is correct. IMO it is correct.

Kinshook · Answer

Over the past ten years, 
the National Endowment for the Arts 
 has also awarded nearly  five million dollars 
to organizations providing healing arts services to military service members, older adults, and youth with physical or mental challenges.

A. has  also  awarded nearly
There is no need for  also  in the sentence and it is redundant. Incorrect
B. has  been  awarded  up to 
This changes the meaning of the original sentence in 2 ways
1. the National Endowment for the Arts  has awarded nearly  five million dollars and not  has been awarded nearly 
2.  nearly  is replaced with  up to 
Incorrect
C. has awarded  up to 
 nearly  is replaced with  up to 
Incorrect
D. has  been  awarding nearly
it seems that the million dollars has been awarded every year and changes the meaning of the original sentence. Incorrect
E.  has awarded nearly 
Over the past ten years, the National Endowment for the Arts  has awarded nearly  five million dollars to organizations providing healing arts services to military service members, older adults, and youth with physical or mental challenges. 
is a correct sentence

IMO E

zhanbo · Answer

My answer is  (E) . I can confidently eliminate just one option (B).

(A) The difference between (A) and (E) is the additional word "also" in (A). If I accept (E), must I accept (A)? The answer is probably YES. As we do not know anything about the context of the sentence, we can argue "also" is needed. In that case, (A) and (E) must be both wrong.

(B) Passive voice is definitely wrong: the National Endowment for the Arts is not the recipient of the award.

(C) The difference between (A) and (E) is between "up to" and "nearly". The use of each is quite common and not controversial. A minute distinction can be made that "An amount that is up to five million dollars" can actually turn out to be much lower than 5million. After all, if I decide to buy up to 100 bitcoins, I may just buy 0.00...001 bitcoins and claim that my goal is fulfilled. "Nearly", on the other hand, is more precise. But what is the intension of the author? We do not know.

(D) Usually I can eliminate (D) without much thinking. There is no need / justification to emphasize that the National Endowment for the Arts awarded the nearly / up to 5 million dollars on the continuous basis. It would probably only make a batch of awards each year over the past ten years. Why am I not that confident? Well, this is GMAT CLUB OLYMPICS, in which some questions reveal arcane rules and astonishing answers. haha.

(E) My choice. It is not that different from (A) or (B). Instead of dwelling on this question, picking one answer and moving on to the next question is the wise call.

sivatx2 · Answer

Over the past ten years, the National Endowment for the Arts has also awarded nearly five million dollars to organizations providing healing arts services to military service members, older adults, and youth with physical or mental challenges.

A. has also awarded nearly 
 Grammatically, the usage of also in this example is correct. If the clause is in the perfect or past perfect, also is after the auxiliary and before the verb. But when you check the meaning of the sentence, also usage is unnecessary for this sentence. There is no other action, the National Endowment for the Arts has done/mentioned, to use also in the sentence. 
So, this is an incorrect choice.

B. has been awarded up to 
 'up to' usage alters the meaning of the sentence. It could be from one dollar to five million dollars. Also, "has been awarded" completely changed the meaning of the original sentence. Hence, this is an incorrect choice.

C. has awarded up to 
 'up to' usage alters the meaning of the sentence. It could be from one dollar to five million dollars. Hence, this is an incorrect choice.

D. has been awarding nearly 
 Grammatically, may be correct but this changes the meaning of the original sentence. It changes such that every time, the Nation Endowment for the Arts has been awarding nearly 5 million dollars( multiple occurrences of entire amount, instead of sum of smaller amounts). Hence, this is an incorrect choice.

E. has awarded nearly 
 has conjunction along with -ed verb makes the tense of the sentence, in all voices, correct with respect to the time period, "Over the past ten years" - from past to present. So, the answer choice is E.

JonShukhrat · Answer

Over the past ten years, the National Endowment for the Arts has also awarded nearly five million dollars to organizations providing healing arts services to military service members, older adults, and youth with physical or mental challenges.

A. has also awarded nearly

“also” is unwarranted, so I s wrong

B. has been awarded up to

this organization was not awarded, but it itself awarded, hence wrong.

C. has awarded up to

“up to” is mostly used to show a maximum capacity, so a reader may perceive as though the organization will not award more than this. Probably this not the intended idea.

D. has been awarding nearly

These shows perfect continuous that seems unwarranted here.

E. has awarded nearly

Correct choice as far as I know. I have seen GMAT use “nearly” a lot.

So E

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