New equipment and other improvements reduced the amount of time—from

Question

New equipment and other improvements reduced the amount of time—from eleven hours in 1982 to six in 1988— needed by workers so that they could produce  a ton of steel.

(A) needed by workers so that they could produce
(B) needed when workers are producing
(C) workers need in producing
(D) workers needed to produce
(E) workers need for their producing of

vishu1414 · Answer

I think its C
Amount of time -  from eleven hours in 1982 to six in 1988  -workers need in producing ..

Jp27 · Answer

Hello - D is the correct answer

(c)
unidiomatic -- you don't need X in VERBing; you need X to VERB..

Cheers

shanmugamgsn · Answer

It should be D Here is my explanation from eleven hours in 1982 to six in 1988 -- this is modifier for "amount of time" so we can avoid this So New equipment and other improvements reduced the amount of time workers needed to produce This seems to be precise and less ambiguous... :-D

Please correct me if im wrong

Skywalker18 · Answer

New equipment and other improvements reduced the amount of time - from eleven hours in 1982 to six in 1988 -   needed by workers so that they could produce   a ton of steel.

(A) needed by workers so that they could produce - "so that" is wordy, but also doesn't make literal sense here -- "X so that Y" implies that X is an action taken toward the goal Y. i.e., i studied hard so that i could get a good grade.
needing time is not an action taken toward a goal, so this doesn't make sense.
(B) needed when workers are producing - read literally, this sentence doesn't give any indication that the workers themselves need the time -- it just states that the time is "needed" (we don't know by whom) when the workers are working.
(C) workers need in producing - present tense doesn't make sense
(D) workers needed to produce - Correct
(E) workers need for their producing of - present tense doesn't make sense

Answer D

gmatFalcon · Answer

The correct answer is C. active voice better than passive voice for GMAT test

AkshdeepS · Answer

(A) needed by workers  so that they  could produce  (wordy and "could" also distorts the meaning)

(B) needed  when workers are producing    Awkward

(C) workers  need in producing   "need to" required here

(D) workers needed to produce  Correct

(E) workers need  for their producing of    (Does not make sense)

thangvietnam · Answer

"to produce" in choice D implies a terminate action. 
I need 3 hours to learn this lession. "to learn" implies finishing learning. 
"in producing' in choice C is meaningless. no terminate action is implied.

so, we learn that "to do" after the main verb can show an action which can finish in the future.

Harsh9676 · Answer

Hi

I think this is a great question and from the above posts I can see that most of us eliminated the other choices because we all know the rule that "TO" is required when some activity is intended to or required to do some other activity.

However, I am confused or I'd say I have a very vague understanding in using the other prepositions such as:

1. With - to present additional info about the subject.
2. In producing (in this example) 
3. For - used when the objection of the preposition answers "what for?"

GMATNinja ,  SajjadAhmad ,  VeritasPrepBrian ,  daagh  can you please shed some light on the usage of these prepositions.

GMATPolvon · Answer

What is the mistake of A? And why passive is not preferrable in this case?

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Here's is the version created via the use of (A).

New equipment and other improvements reduced the amount of time—from eleven hours in 1982 to six in 1988— needed by workers so that they could produce  a ton of steel.

"So that" indicates that something is done for the purpose of accomplishing something else.

In this case, the sentence suggests the nonsensical idea that time was needed by the workers so that the workers could produce a ton of steel, as if, if time were not needed by the workers, they wouldn't be able to produce a ton of steel.

The use of the passive voice itself is not an issue. The problem is that the passive voice is used in conveying a meaning that does not make sense.

harish555 · Answer

New equipment and other improvements reduced the amount of time—from eleven hours in 1982 to six in 1988—needed by workers so that they could produce a ton of steel.

(A) needed by workers so that they could produce
(B) needed when workers are producing
(C) workers need in producing
(D) workers needed to produce
(E) workers need for their producing of

This is a very elegant question . 
At first instance, we see that there is no issue with options A, C and D. B and E are completely out of the sense . 
Elimination process :
New equipment and ...reduced the amount of time - This is the clue. Whose time got reduced ? workers . So, its always better to use active voice for such statements. 
A- needed by workers so that they could produce 
Needed by workers - It may not be wrong . they could produce - That means that they still not produced . But as per the given statement -from eleven hours in 1982 to six in 1988- , those equipment already reduced the time of workers needed. 
So, A is out

B- needed when workers are producing 
Needed of whom - there is no referent . B is out

C- workers need in producing
Looks like an answer . keep it

D- workers needed to produce
Aww, This too looks like an answer. keep it

E- workers need for their producing of
their producing - Na, what is their producing . E is out

Now, we are left with C and D
Elimination process and steps 
1.Need in vs needed to . As the event happened in past , needed is much preferable to need. 
2. needed to -superior idiom wise
3. producing - present continuous tense. Its not required here as the event happened in the past . 
So, D is the answer .

Sounds logical ?

Beingstoic · Answer

Hi  MartyTargetTestPrep ,
I can't understand the use of past tense needed in the OA.
ex. The amount of time workers need has increased from 4 to 5 hours.

In this sentence and the question isn't 'the amount of time' acting as a constant entity 't', which was and is needed by workers even if it reduces or not?
The workers still need some time to produce steel, and that time is not diminished/negligible. 
So, why are we not using present tense here?
Please share your thoughts.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Beingstoic ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the use of the phrase "six in 1988" implies that the amount of time was six hours specifically in 1988, meaning it has changed since then.

Thus, the simple past tense is needed.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

Notice that the sentence says the following:

New equipment and other improvements  reduced  the amount of time—from eleven hours  in 1982  to six  in 1988

So, the sentence is about two quantities of time NEEDED by workers in two PAST years.

Thus, it makes sense to use the simple past "needed."

New equipment and other improvements reduced the amount of time—from

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