National Bank of Canada’s employee insurance coverage is little improv

Question

National Bank of Canada’s employee insurance coverage  is little improved from how it was  in the past ten years.

(A) is little improved from how it was

(B) is a little improved from how it was

(C) has improved little

(D) has improved little from how it has been

(E) is little improved from the way it was

shashanksagar · Answer

I think it's E. But I can be wrong. What's OA? I would go with "has" instead of "is" because of structure "A's B", And perfect tense "has been" to show timeline. Fingers crossed!

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Kevalkhanna · Answer

the OA is C. you are right the past perfect tense > simple tense <------------("in the past ten years") so A,B,E eliminated. between C and D. C is concise. PS: this is what I got from the OA. (I chose E initially) . I think my reason to narrow down to C are correct

what say?

shashanksagar · Answer

Now that I think about C it makes sense.. "improvement" implies from previous state. . So E has redundancy. But still I am confused between Has and Is. Maybe an expert can shed some light.

thangvietname · Answer

logic of sc is so simple but so fatally that we can use our common sense to realize the illogicness.

improved from how

is not logic. it dose not exist in our world.

improved from something/noun, is good

improved from how, from "adverb" is not logic.

we can eliminate all a,b,d and e for only this reason

nick28 · Answer

Don't we use past perfect tense when the event is ongoing ? Here in this question, the improvement is done, so shouldn't "is" be preferred over "has" ?

Kevalkhanna · Answer

Thanks.. I got your logic, But I still have the question whether has/is choice doesn't matter in this question? Thanks

RatneshS · Answer

I believe its D as C changes the meaning
suppose we give rating as 1-10
the intent is that if currently its rating is 9 then in in past 10 years its varied from 1-8....which means the year we are accounting for is the 11th year and onwards

C says we are accounting for the 10 years not the 11th and onwards. Its a shift in meaning.

sayantanc2k · Answer

D is wrong because "improved  from " requires a state at a point of time. The sentence could be correct if it were:

... has improved little FROM how it was  ten years ago ..... correct (improved FROM a state at a point of time in past).

Improvement is from one point TO another point OVER/IN a period.... thus option C is correct. (Period is mentioned, but points are not mentioned - this is alright since the preposition FROM is not there in option C).

In absence of more than one gramatically correct options, we must select the only one which is gramatically correct, even though it might deviate from the original sentence. There is no mention in GMAC guidelines that the original sentence always convey the intended meaning.

sayantanc2k · Answer

"is improved" is in simple present passive voice.
"has improved" is in present perfect active voice.

Present perfect is required because the verb "improve" has already occured and its effect is still there.

Kevalkhanna · Answer

Thanks for the explanation. I got to know a new thing about the verb "improve". I want to clarify whether it happens in every case in which this verb is used? Moreover one more thing, I thought that the "in past seven years" was an indication to use the present perfect tense. Am I right? Thanks

sayantanc2k · Answer

Your query 1:
The above is applicable not just for the verb "improve", but for any verb whatsoever. 
Yes, for ALL cases - when an action happened in the past and its effect still exists in the present, present perfect is required.

Your query 2:
Yes, "in the last seven years" may be considered an indication to use present perfect. This phrase would generally be used with an action that happened in the past but still has an effect in the present. However I would suggest you not to decide on present perfect just seeing the phrase "in the xxx time period"; understanding the implied meaning is important.

Bunuel · Answer

MANHATTAN REVIEW OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The question involves efficiency of language. Only C provides efficiency. Choice C is the correct answer.

Kushchokhani · Answer

Bunuel

We can add the source Manhattan Review for this ques.

VerbalBot · Answer

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National Bank of Canada’s employee insurance coverage is little improv

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National Bank of Canada’s employee insurance coverage is little improv

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