In landmark psychological studies of the 1920's, Jean Piaget

Question

In landmark psychological studies of the 1920's, Jean Piaget observes the behavioral repertoires of his own children to further his understanding of the development of knowledge. a) observes the behavioral repertoires of his own children b) observed the behavioral repertoires of his own children c) observes the behavioral repertoires performed by his own children d) observes behaviors by his own children e) observes the performance of his own children's behavior Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv1HoM7 ... r_embedded

daagh · Answer

We will get rid of D and E because they are distorting the meaning by dropping the word r epertoires.

C also is wrong because of wrong idiom ‘ repertories by ’ rather than ' repertoires of'.  Again a repertoire is a collection and can not be performed as such.

Normally going by the rudimentary logic of grammar, we should be tempted to choose Choice B for using pest tense to denote something that happened nearly a century ago.

But it may be off tangent. I am not able to trust the obvious in a GMAT exercise. Although the book or study might have been in the past, his observations are intact still today and so the use of present tense will be justifiable in the given case. I will rather take A

For example look at the following sentence.

“The Big Bang that occurred 20 billion years ago is still the only plausible theory of the evolution of the universe. “

Here we refer to the Big Bang in a present tense.

dreambeliever · Answer

yeah, I also thought both A and B were correct and would of gone with A just following the principle - if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

just wanted to know what others thought of this strategy. Wish i had the OA.

metallicafan · Answer

Yes, I think that A is the answer.
It seem it refers to a book.
For example:
"In Hamlet, written between 1599 and 1601, Shakespeare describeS the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark, and blah, blah, blah...".

I think this is the case in this question.

BKimball · Answer

Hey all,

Over the last few weeks on this forum, I've seen a few variations of the idea that extremely important or lasting historical events get to be written in the present tense, but this is false. If an event occurred at a definite point in time and that time is in the past, the verb should really be in the past tense no matter how important the event. Consider the following critical events in world history:

"The Big Bang occurred 14 billion years ago."
"A meteor crashed into earth 65 million years ago and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs."
"The U.S. became independent in 1776."
"The Orioles won the World Series in 1983."

You would not use present tense in any of these example.

About the example with Hamlet:

"In Hamlet, Shakespeare describes..."

I would argue that this is often used in the present tense for colloquial reasons related to the idea that literature lasts forever. You would NOT say:

"Shakespeare writes Hamlet between 1599 and 1601" even though this means the exact same thing. (Note: You might say this if you were telling the story to somebody else in present tense casually. Similarly: "So I enter the room, and the teacher yells at me. I don't know why, but I end up with detention for a week!" This would be incorrect on the GMAT, though.)

You WOULD say:

"Shakespeare wrote Hamlet between 1599 and 1601."

And you could also legitimately say:

"In Hamlet, Shakespeare described..."

In sum: Really try to keep in mind that on the GMAT, grammatical rules reign supreme over meaning issues, concision, colloquialism, what "sounds right," and everything else. If the event occurred in the past tense, I'd really push you to choose a past tense verb. I would be very cautious about breaking this rule (and choosing A,C,D, or E in this example).

noboru · Answer

OK, because the Big Ban is  still  being the only plausible bla bla bla. However, Jean Piaget is not  still  observing.

daagh · Answer

True he is not alive to observe. Great people may die but their writings don’t . That is why we say they are immortal. Abraham Lincoln may not be alive to repeat what he said about Democracy at his Gettysburg Speech; but what he said remains immortal and eternal. That is why we use the present tense.

noboru · Answer

OK, I can agree with that.

The question is therefore: Is Jean Piaget's observations as important and unviersal as let say...Newtons' relativity theory or Lincoln's Gettysburg speech?

daagh · Answer

yes certainly for those to whom Jean Piaget matters.

tirupatibalaji · Answer

Jean's observation has finished hence the choice A is incorrect. I go with B.
what is OA?

noboru · Answer

And who are those guys? (aside from Jean Piaget' s family ) :-)

BKimball · Answer

While I agree that these historical events are all pretty critical, keep in mind that getting an answer right on the GMAT will never depend on a test taker's ability to distinguish, identify, or rank the importance of historical events. If you find yourself asking "Was this event more or less important than X?" as a way to determine whether it deserves past or present tense, you're missing the point of the question.

Happy studying!

Happy studying!

Zatarra · Answer

Whats the OA.
Everyone seems to be going for A which is wrong according to what u r saying

BKimball · Answer

mundasingh123,

This is not an OG question, so I don't know what the OA is. However, it looks like A and B are the favorites and I'd argue the Subject-Verb Agreement issue is a pretty decisive split here.

Brett

In landmark psychological studies of the 1920's, Jean Piaget

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards