Less than 35 years after the release of African honeybees outside Sao

"Less than 35 years" is just a modifier introducing the situation.

The sequence is:

* 35 years ago, some bees were released
* Over the next 35 years, the bees move north
* And now those bees are in Texas

Answer : A

In the correct choice, Less than 35 years after the release of African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil,, I believe the clause should start with in as in option B. Without the in, the opening modifier doesn't seem to appropriately modify their descendents

Can somebody please explain why "had migrated" is used here and , what is the sequence of events. According to MGMAT "had" is used only when you want to denote an action or event occurred prior to some past event.

Hi onkargm ,

I think you misread something here.

There are two uses of 'had'.

1. Used to denote an earlier action out of two actions in the past.
2. Simple past usage.

Here, in this question, the sentence is talking about the past event and its the simple past usage and not the one you are thinking.

It is saying: Their descendants had migrated as far north as southern Texas. --> Simple Past usage.

Does that make sense?

GMATNinja egmat VeritasPrepKarishma

Is the opening phrase which includes - the release of - a modifier?
Is release treated as a noun or verb?
What is the earlier event that precedes -had migrated - in OA ?

I have clear verbs - took and were released - in (E) but even then we discarded it.Can you share the PoE?

Note the use of "the" before release. You cannot use an article before a verb. Release is a noun here.

The verb "had migrated" is in past perfect but here is the point - it is not underlined so we don't have to worry about it. Perhaps the sentences before or after it use simple past and here past perfect gives the context - for example, five years later, they were found in Louisiana too.

Mind you, past perfect often has a later event (not earlier as you mentioned) in simple past though it is not necessary. Check here: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2015/0 ... questions/

The problem with D is the use of the conjunction 'when'. We don't use 'when' to denote a 35-year span. When as a conjunction is used to pinpoint a specific point of time. If we ascribe 'when' to the entire period, then we are in effect saying that the bees had migrated at the beginning of 35 years, had completed the migration yet again in the middle of the course, and then finally had migrated at the end of the specified 35-year stint.

Can a pronoun point to a noun in a prepositional phrase?
For option (A), the main subject noun is "the release". I struck off (A) as the correct answer because I thought there is only a possible antecedent, which is "the release", but it does not match up with "their".

Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Yes,it can If you understand the meaning of the sentence, 'their' has only one logical antecedent i.e 'honeybees'. Pronoun ambiguity should be last thing that you should consider to rule out any choice.

Thanks
Please press kudos if my response helped you in any way

Time-traveling bees will be mentioned in this post. You've been warned.


First, we never want to eliminate an answer choice because it sounds weird! More on that in this article and this video.

The distinction here is one of meaning and tense. If I begin a sentence with "In less than 35 years," the expectation is that I'll follow this modifier with an action in the future. For example, "In less than 35 years, Tim hopes to be retired and living on a houseboat off the coast of Spain." Tim's not retired yet, but in the future, presumably, he will be.

In this problem, we're talking about a past event, so "in less than" is inappropriate. However, if we get rid of the "in" we can coherently describe a past action. For example, "Less than 5 years after she learned to walk, Tanya began demanding an iPad with better memory and a phone plan with unlimited data." Here, Tanya's demands are in the past, but they're after another action in the past -- when she learned to walk.


Excellent question! In effect, there are three time markers in this sentence. 1) When the bees were released; 2) 35 years after the bees were released; and 3) when the bees migrated to Southern Texas. We use the past perfect "had" for action #3 because it took place before time #2, which is also in the past. Put another way, imagine that the bees were released in 1900. We know that they had migrated to Texas before 1935, which is also in the past.


Take another look at the entire phrase you're referring to:

"In less than 35 years since releasing African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, their descendants..."

If you're willing to overlook the problem with the phrase "in less than 35 years," (and you shouldn't be!) there's also a modification error here. It sounds as though "releasing" is modifying "their descendants," meaning that the descendants of the bees somehow released their own ancestors! If someone wants to make a sci-fi movie about time-traveling bees that journey into the past to save their older relatives, I will certainly watch this movie, but on the GMAT, this is considered illogical, so (B) is wrong.

I hope that helps!

sandipchowdhury wrote:

(B) In less than 35 years since releasing African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil,

IMHO B is incorrect because since releasing is (or could be confused as) a NOUN MODIFIER.

In this sense, whenever we have a SUBORDINATOR + PARTICIPLE (either past or present), we are building a noun modifier - even though, in some cases, it could also be a verb modifier.


Example:

Although exhausted, JOE wanted to keep on playing. -------> "although exhausted" here needs "JOE" to make sense, and therefore needs to be next to that noun.



In conclusion, the "since releasing" phrase is touching "their descendants", and is incorrect because the descendants could not have released the older honeybees.



Rod,

Less than 35 years after the release of African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, their descendents, popularly known as killer bees, had migrated as far north as Southern Texas.

(A) Less than 35 years after the release of African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, Correct answer - no apparent errors.

(B) In less than 35 years since releasing African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, "since releasing..." incorrectly modifies "their descendents...", absurdly implying that the descendents released the bees. Eliminate.

(C) In less than the 35 years since African honeybees had been released outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, "the 35 years" implies that the present is 35 years since the release of honeybees. This is not the original meaning of the sentence. Also, if this is so, then usage of past perfect "had migrated" is incorrect. Eliminate.

(D) It took less than 35 years from the release of African honeybees outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, when "when..." implies that the descendents' migration occurred simultaneously with the release of the honeybees, which is illogical. Eliminate.

(E) It took less than the 35 years after the time that African honeybees were released outside Sao Paulo, Brazil, and then "after the time that African honeybees were released" is too wordy. Also, "and then" + past participle is incorrect. Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

Migration had happened before "less than 35 years" passed. With this logic, past perfect makes sense

GMATNinja There is just one event in this sentence and still past perfect tense is being used. Why? Is there an exception to the rule of the usage of past perfect?

Gagan

The past perfect is used to designate something that happened in the past before something else in the past. That something else could be an action. But it could also be a date.

For example:

"By 2010, Tim had broken every bone in his body."

There are two elements in the past in this sentence. There's the date, 2010. And before that, Tim broke all of his bones. Because the action is taking place before something else in the past, the past perfect is appropriate, even through there's only one action here.

To see how it applies on this SC problem, try taking another look at our response to the second question here.

I hope that helps!

in choice A, "less than ..." show a point of time. had done need a point of time, show choice A is good.

in choice B , "in less than..." show a period. past perfect dont need a period to be used. this is wrong

but there is a thing. "in" can go with past perfect in many problems in gmatprep pack.

in 2020, I had passed gmat. (this sentence is similar to our problem in that a point of time is given for past perfect)
by 2020, I had passed gmat

both above sentences are correct.

what is better: in less than 35 years after..... or less than 35 years since the release of...?