Progress and Barbarism: World in the Twentieth Century Hardcover – Import, 1998
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Major Cities (A) CORRECT
(B) Verb (provided)
(C) Verb (had been, was still being)
(D) Modifier / Meaning (having)
(E) Verb (had been)
First glanceThe parallel marker
but is just before the underline. Should the underlined part of the sentence start with
electricity or something else?
Issues(1) Verb: provided; had been; was still beingCompare the answers vertically; various verb tenses change.
(A) electricity
was in homes, where lighting
was still
provided by candles…
(B) electricity
was in homes and lighting still
provided by candles…
(C) there
had been less…where lighting
was still
being provided by candles…
(D) there
was less… having lighting that
was still
provided by candles…
(E) less than 1 percent
had electricity, where lighting
had still
been provided by candles…
Answer (B) is missing the verb
was before
provided. It should read: lighting
was provided by candles.
Answers (C) and (E) use past perfect (
had been). Past perfect can be used only when the sentence also has another past event that took place later in time than the past perfect event.
In the case of answer (C), the
had been event took place at the same time as the
was provided event, so the two events should be in the same tense. The reasoning is the same for answer (E): the
had event took place at the same time as the
had been provided event, so they should employ the same tense. (Note that
had, by itself, is simple past.
Had becomes past perfect only when paired with a past participle, such as
had provided.)
Eliminate answers (B), (C), and (E).
(2) Modifier / Meaning: havingAnswers (A), (C), and (E) all use where to start the modifier; answer (D) uses
having. (Answer (B) changes that part of the structure completely.)
Where was lighting still provided mainly by candles or gas? In the
homes. The
where modifier in answers (A) and (B) clearly points to the
homes. In answer (E), the
where could be interpreted as pointing to the noun just before the comma:
electricity. This, of course, is not the right location.
The Official Guide explanation does not address this point, so it’s unclear whether the test writers would consider this acceptable. Therefore, call this “suspicious” and avoid this choice unless there is no better option. Eliminate answers (A) and (B) and put a question mark next to (E).
Answer (D) uses the
comma -ing modifier structure
there was less than 1 percent…, having lighting. A
comma -ing modifier refers to the main subject and verb of the clause to which it’s attached; in this case, the
having modifier refers to
there was. It should be referring to the
homes, so eliminate answer (D).
The Correct AnswerCorrect answer (A) uses the same verb tense (was, was provided) to talk about two past events that occurred at the same time. The where modifier correctly refers to homes.