It is anticipated that in coming years employers will provide great

Question

It is anticipated that  in coming years employers will provide greater incentives than never before for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more per day in traffic than they were  in the last decades.

A. in coming years employers will provide greater incentives than never before for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more per day in traffic than they were

B. greater incentives than ever before will be provided in coming years for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more daily in traffic than they were

C. employers will provide greater incentives than before in coming years to employees who commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more daily in traffic than they had

D. in coming years employers will provide greater incentives than ever before for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more per day in traffic than they were

E. in comparison with previous years, in coming years employers will provide greater incentives for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to spend an average of 20 minutes more daily in traffic than they had spent

Sushil117 · Answer

20 minutes more per day in traffic than they "were"

it's an action that was completed in past.so "were" isn't right." had" should be used.

"are likely to be spending"
as it's more of a habitual action,it should be in simple form rather than in continuous.

so A,B,C and D are out
IMO E is the answer.

rohit8865 · Answer

Hi SKY396 "in comparison with previous year, in coming years"....is wrong comparison it should be "in comparison with previous year, coming years will see..../or something else that compares previous years directly with coming years also "had spent" is in participle form ...but we does not see any other action happening in past..so usage of "had " is not correct hope it helps

Bunuel · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

It is anticipated that  in coming years employers will provide greater incentives than never before for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more per day in traffic than they were  in the last decades.

A. in coming years employers will provide greater incentives than never before for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more per day in traffic than they were

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect. The correct idiom is  greater...than  ever  before , not  greater than  never  before .

B. greater incentives than ever before will be provided in coming years for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more daily in traffic than they were

Incorrect.

While this answer choice corrects the idiom mistake in the original question by changing  never before  to  ever before , it is stylistically flawed. The corrected sentence's use of the passive construction  will be provided  is stylistically inferior than  employers will provide .

C. employers will provide greater incentives than before in coming years to employees who commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more daily in traffic than they had

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect because of the incorrect use of the Past Perfect tense ( had   ).

The original sentence compares between the amount of time  car owners  are likely to be  spending  in the  future  and    they  were     in the  past . It does so by constructing parallel clauses in which the shared subject is  car owners (// they)  and the verbs are different forms of  to be spending  ( to be spending//were   ).

By changing the conjugated verb in the second part of the sentence from  were  to  had , this sentence changes the tense of the last verb in the sentence from Past Progressive  were    to Past Perfect  had   . However, the use of the Past Perfect tense is incorrect here, because it should only be used to describe an action that occurred before another action in the past.

And yes, before you ask, the Past Simple 'did' would have worked here as well, as would any other verb in Past Simple/Progressive - just not Past Perfect.

D. in coming years employers will provide greater incentives than ever before for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more per day in traffic than they were

This answer choice corrects the non-idiomatic expression  than never before  to  than ever before , and it makes no unnecessary changes to the parallel verbs used to support the logical comparative construction of the original question.

The original sentence compares between the amount of time  car owners  are likely to be  spending  in the  future  and    they  were     in the  past . It does so by constructing parallel clauses in which the shared subject is  car owners (// they)  and the verbs are different forms of  to be spending  ( to be spending//were   ).

E. in comparison with previous years, in coming years employers will provide greater incentives for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to spend an average of 20 minutes more daily in traffic than they had spent

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect because of the incorrect use of the Past Perfect tense ( had spent ).

By changing the conjugated verb in the second part of the sentence from  were  to  had spent , this sentence changes the tense of the last verb in the sentence from Past Progressive  were    to Past Perfect  had spent . However, the use of the Past Perfect tense is incorrect here, because it should only be used to describe an action that occurred before another action in the past.

And yes, before you ask, the Past Simple 'did' would have worked here as well, as would any other verb in Past Simple/Progressive - just not Past Perfect.

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

A. in coming years employers will provide greater incentives than never before for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more per day in traffic than they were
never isn't the right usage therefore out

B. greater incentives than ever before will be provided in coming years for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more daily in traffic than they were
incentives are not provided before travelling only after completion of travel therefore meaning error therefore out

C. employers will provide greater incentives than before in coming years to employees who commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more daily in traffic than they had
they had isn't the right usage therefore out

D. in coming years employers will provide greater incentives than ever before for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to be spending an average of 20 minutes more per day in traffic than they were
Only difference from A is the usage of ever the meaning is perfect therefore let us hang on to it

E. in comparison with previous years, in coming years employers will provide greater incentives for employees to commute to work on public transport as car owners are likely to spend an average of 20 minutes more daily in traffic than they had spent
in comparison previous and coming years is redudant therefore out

Therefore IMO D

It is anticipated that in coming years employers will provide great

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

It is anticipated that in coming years employers will provide great

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