In a speech before the two houses of Congress the President accepted

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION



THE PROMPT
In a speech before the two houses of Congress, the President accepted that his government had made some mistakes and that these mistakes had turned the popular opinion against him, but he promised to turn things around, vowing to use a second term to mend public health, revive the economy, and restore law and order.

THE OPTIONS

• I see no issues
• meaning is clear: The President accepted his mistakes and the fact that the mistakes alienated popular opinion, but he promised to fix things.
In the phrase vowing to use a second term . . ., vowing is a modifier of the entire previous clause

ueh55406 , I answer your question in Notes, below.
KEEP


• the passive voice (it was accepted by the President that) shifts to active voice mid-sentence (but he promised to turn things around)—GMAC does not like this switcheroo in one sentence

• "turning" is suspect
→ what does turning modify?
The use of turning is confusing because it gives the impression that the President’s acceptance of the facts (not the mistakes themselves) has turned the popular opinion against him.

• if this list is supposed to contain three items, then we need COMMA + AND rather than COMMA + AS WELL AS
→ in a list of three equally important items, the construction is A, B, and C
→ as well as should be and
→ if this list is supposed to include as well as, then the construction should be
A and B, as well as C

→ take note: as well as can be used in the construction of lists, this way:
Correct: A, B, and C, as well as D
In this list, item D is usually less important than items A, B, and C.

Next year's Shakespeare festival features Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear, as well as Henry VIII and Timon of Athens.
The first three plays are works of staggering genius. The other two are—well, they're kinda duds.

I'm gonna bet that at least half of native English speakers have never heard of the play Timon of Athens.
The italicized sentence contains only one list, but the manner of construction suggests that the last two plays are not as good or renowned or as central to the festival as the first three are.

→ in other words, do not adhere to a blanket rule that states, "as well as can never be part of a list."

I see that not-rule on these boards too often.

As well as can be a preposition that means "in addition to."

The reason to eliminate this option is that "as well as" can follow and be attached to a list only after COMMA + AND has delineated the last item in the "important" group (A, B, AND C)

• it was accepted that is in passive voice
→ Passive voice is not always wrong. In fact, passive voice is correct at least 15 percent of the time on the GMAT.
→ In this case, though, the passive construction in B creates unnecessary awkwardness and a sentence inferior to that created by option A.
ELIMINATE B


• Illogical
→ The verbs revived and restored are past tense, but the President has not yet started his second term. He "vowed to use" that second term to fix his mistakes.

• Verbs are not parallel
The verbs that describe the past are accepted, promised, and vowed.
The words that describe what will happen in the future should be parallel: . . . vowed to mend . . . to revive. . . , and to restore . . .
ELIMINATE C


• to mend, reviving, and restoring are not parallel

• A second that is needed
The President accepted two things.
→ He accepted THAT ABC and THAT XYZ.
→ in order to "attach" the second fact to the President's acceptance, we repeat that: he accepted that X and that y

• promising creates a sentence that stutters
In the midst of what should be a sentence driven by active verbs, a present participle modifier (a verbING modifier) pops up.
The diction is strange.

• to keep us from unnecessarily jumping around in time in the same clause, have turned should be turned.
→ GMAC prefers simple past. No reason exists to shift from simple past (accepted) to present perfect (have turned).
ELIMINATE D


• the passive voice in it has been accepted creates the same issues as those in Option B.

• the use of that after but is wrong
→ the sentence is confusing at best, nonsensical at worst
→ The placement of that after but implies that "he promised to ABC and he vowed to XYZ" are also things that the President has accepted.
ELIMINATE E

The correct answer is A.

NOTES

About option A, ueh55406 wrote:


Good question! I suspect that what bothers you is the unnecessary use of past perfect at all.

In direct answer to your question, no, I don't think so, although I agree with half of your sentiment: I would render all three verbs in simple past tense.
Auxiliary verbs such as had drag down sentences.

In British English, both present perfect and past perfect are used more frequently than in U.S. English.
If you've been reading a lot of North American English prose, those two verbs will seem out of place to you.

We don't need had made mistakes or had turned opinion; made mistakes and turned popular opinion would be less leaden and more concise.
We do not need the past perfect verb tenses to follow the logic.
We understand the sequence whether or not the past perfect is used.

Here's the guideline: if past perfect is used to signal the earlier of two events in the past, then at least one verb must be in simple past tense or a time stamp must exist.

This sentence follows that guideline.
→ The simple past tense verb accepted marks the latest-in-time of three prior events.
→ Whatever events preceded that latest-in-time event (which is "demarcated" by the use of simple past tense) can be rendered in past perfect (had made mistakes and had turned popular opinion).

The verbs, in sequence:
|past perfect| → |past perfect|→ |simple past| describe this timeline:

|government mistakes| →→ |popular opinion against government| →→ |President accepted those two events|

The President "accepted" the hostile popular opinion because that opinion turned against him before his acceptance.

Essentially, (1) all three verbs should be in simple past
or
(2) the two earlier-in-time verbs should be in past perfect while the latest-in-time verb should be in simple present. ← This is our situation in option A.

COMMENTS

ueh55406 , welcome to SC Butler.

These answers range from good to excellent.
This question is hard to unpack.
Good for all of you for taking a shot. Kudos.