Now generally regarded as a forgery, the Kensington Rune Stone, a 90-k

Even the best version of this sentence is not great.

A stone recorded something? How would a stone record an encounter? Even worse, (A) uses "was said to have recorded," as if the stone is know to have, at one point in time, actively recorded the encounter. Did the stone then read the recording out loud?

So, initially, I thought (B) to be the better choice, because at least (B) says just "recorded" without going totally off the wall with "was said to have recorded."

I figured that "was said to record" was being used to express something along the lines of "was said to show the record of." So, the beginning of (B) seems reasonable, sort of, with that interpretation.

However, continuing along in the (B) version, we see that it falls apart. Notice what the (B) version says.

the Kensington Rune Stone ... was said to record an encounter ..., thus being cited as evidence

In this type of context, "thus" means that by doing one thing, the stone also did another.

So, this version conveys the nonsensical meaning that, by being "said to record an encounter" the stone was "being cited as evidence."

A stone would not be cited as evidence by being said to record something. So, in the (B) version, this already sketchy sentence becomes unbearably insane.

So, since the (C), (D), and (E) versions aren't even sentences, we have to go back to (A) and see whether we can justify it.

The (A) version says the following.

the Kensington Rune Stone ... was said to have recorded an encounter ..., and thus was cited as evidence

Hmm. So, I can see what's going on here now. In this version, the writer is using "thus" as "therefore." Notice how logical the sentence would sound with "therefore" where "thus" is.

the Kensington Rune Stone ... was said to have recorded an encounter ..., and therefore was cited as evidence

Of course, the writer wouldn't bother to use "therefore," because then everyone would choose (A). So, the writer used "thus" instead, making the sentence not optimal and, thus, obscuring the fact that the (A) version is the best version.

Anyway, we can see that the (A) version is sort of logical. The stone was said to "have recorded an encounter." I guess that is a sketchy way of saying something along the lines of that it was said that the stone had served as a means of recording an encounter, or maybe what the writer meant is kind of like "the video camera was said to have recorded an encounter," as if, back in the day, a stone would have recorded an encounter the way a video camera does today, though the stone would have needed the help of someone with a hammer and a chisel. Then, we have "and thus was cited as evidence."

So, the meaning conveyed is "it was said that the stone had recorded an encounter (with the help of someone with a hammer and a chisel), and therefore the stone was cited as evidence."

OK, that makes enough sense. The (A) version is the best one. So, we go with it.

Definitely a weird sentence though.
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to choose between choice a and b is hard.

"to have done" or "had done" is a perfect tense, which show an action happen before another action. we, non natives, should attach the meaning of "before" whenever we see this tense.

to justify that an action should logically happen before another action is hard in practice and we need to consider the whole context of sentence. this is time consuming. grammar is simple : perfect tense happen before an action. but , we need to understand whole context to justify the order of 2 actions.

considering the whole context, "recording" should happen before "was said".

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Tenses + Grammatical Construction + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• The present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is also used to indicate actions whose exact time is not known.
• The simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.

A: Correct.
1/ This answer choice acts upon the independent subject "the Kensington Rune Stone" with the active verbs "was said" and "was cited" to form a complete thought, producing a complete sentence.
2/ Option A correctly uses the present perfect tense verb "have recorded" to refer to an action whose exact time is not known.

B:
1/ This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb "respond" to refer to an action whose exact time is not known; remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is also used to indicate actions whose exact time is not known, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.
2/ Option B is awkward and needlessly wordy due to its use of "being"; remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

C:
1/ This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as "regarded", "inscribed", "discovered", "said", and "cited" are all past participles acting as modifiers, there is no active verb to act upon the subject "the Kensington Rune Stone".

D:
1/ This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as "regarded", "inscribed", "discovered", and "cited" are all past participles acting as modifiers, and "said" is part of a "which" phrase, there is no active verb to act upon the subject "the Kensington Rune Stone".
2/ Option D incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb "respond" to refer to an action whose exact time is not known; remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is also used to indicate actions whose exact time is not known, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.

E:
1/ This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as "regarded", "inscribed", "discovered", and "said" are all past participles acting as modifiers, and "cited" is part of a "which" phrase, there is no active verb to act upon the subject "the Kensington Rune Stone".

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Present Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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