Modern planetary science has a detailed understanding of the condition

Does develop vs Has developed.

"scientists determine [..] does develop life"
"scientists determine [..] has developed life"

Has developed encompasses a "more complete" time, as it extends to the past. By choosing "does develop", you are implying that scientists have already determined whether "[..] developed life", which as far as I know is inaccurate.

Any specific doubt you have with this question? If you consider the split between tenses and correlate with the overall tense of the sentence, you are done.

Cheers !!

Hi mikemcgarry

Ideally i was expecting an option that would say - will develop life.

Could you please let me know why option D is correct and A is wrong ?

MAGOOSH OE:

Split #1: the progressive verb is not inappropriate. We don't need to know whether life on some other planet is in the process of developing at some exact instant. That's not the concern of the sentence. The future case in (B) therefore doesn't fit.

Split #2: according to the scientists, the conditions themselves already guarantee that life "could develop". If a planet meets these conditions, there's nothing hypothetical in question --- we know life "could develop." We want to know whether life actually has developed. Both hypothetical answers, (C) & (E), are wrong.

Split #3: The structure in (A) is quite unusual. The structure "is"/"are" + [infinitive] connotes some sort of necessity: an authoritative order or something about destiny. (a) I have never seen the structure employed as part of a correct answer on the GMAT. (b) Its connotations are completely wrong here—nothing is setting the planet's "destiny." This is incorrect.

This development could have happened in the past, up to and including the present: for this, we need the present perfect tense. Only (D) has this. (D) is the only possible answer.

GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo

Hi GMATNinja, I was wondering could you please explain why option A is incorrect and D is correct? I eliminated option D because I thought we didn't need a certainty in the sentence. Considering there is a doubt (scientists are still unable to determine whether a given specific planet...), I thought it would be better to use option A instead to showcase this doubt. Would greatly appreciate it if you could please shed some light on this question!

daagh sir , MagooshExpert , pqhai

It still seems unclear why D is preferred over A. Both options seem gramatically correct and seem to be conveying the correct meaning.

godot53

It still seems unclear why D is preferred over A. Both options seem gramatically correct and seem to be conveying the correct meaning.

As mentioned in OE :

Split #3: The structure in (A) is quite unusual. The structure "is"/"are" + [infinitive] connotes some sort of necessity: an authoritative order or something about destiny. (a) I have never seen the structure employed as part of a correct answer on the GMAT. (b) Its connotations are completely wrong here—nothing is setting the planet's "destiny." This is incorrect.

Do you have any specific query?

Split#3 is not clear to me because of the following reasons:

1. "is"/"are" + [infinitive] is present in neither A nor D
2. could you please elaborate on "Its connotations are completely wrong here" part of the OE?

Thanks in advance

It is talking about "does develop" part. In this case "does" is acting main verb. develops would have made some sense in this case but does develop is wrong in any possible case. does + infinitive is wrong. its basic rule of present tense.

Hi Prateek176,

Please see the updated explanation for this on the blog post:

Split #3: The development of life is not necessarily in the present moment, so the present tense in (A) is incorrect. This development could have happened in the past, up to and including the present: for this, we need the present perfect tense. Only (D) has this.

Hopefully that clears up the issue here

-Carolyn

A - "is to develop" - implies some sort of order or instruction to develop. This isn't the case
B - We are trying to develop whether something has occurred, not if it is occurring --> we need past tense
C and E - might/ would = hypothetical. The scientists know the conditions necessary for life to develop, so they just need to find out if it has developed...not if it "would" / "might" develop --> both would and might have future tense implications -->Eliminate both

D is correct as "has" denotes the current state of the scientists test. Has agrees with the singular subject "a specific planet"

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