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San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele

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San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   30 Sep 2010, 06:18
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San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angeles a world city, yet within twenty years a powerful municipal had made this boast a reality .


A. yet within twenty years a powerful municipal had made this boast a reality
B. yet within twenty years a powerful municipal made this boast a reality
C. yet a powerful municipal within twenty years will make this boast a reality
D. yet this boast had become a reality within twenty years because of a powerful will municipally
E. yet within twenty years a municipal will had made this boast a powerful reality
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   30 Sep 2010, 13:17
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My understanding of this unusual grammatical construction is that we can read 'within twenty years' as 'before twenty years passed'. Thus, focusing only on the second clause after the comma, the earliest event is the boast becoming reality. Since the boast becomes reality before that time finishes passing, the perfect tense is appropriate (though not mandatory).

Hope this helps!
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   30 Sep 2010, 14:55
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rafi wrote:
OK, so according to that there are two correct answers in the answer choices in this question.
When I see two correct answers like these two and I remember that the GMAT prefers simplicity I will choose answer choice B and not A. So why is A the OA?
Excellent question, rafi. The answer is that I'm not reading carefully enough! The exception that I cited applies to sentences with specified times, which this sentence lacks. Good catch, and thanks for pointing it out.

That being said, the past perfect tense is used to stress that one event happens before another--again, in this case, before the 20 years passes. The 'had been' past perfect is not limited exclusively to cases where it's omission would make the sentence ambiguous. For that reason, the word 'within' in the past will take the past perfect tense. Here's a couple of examples lifted from periodicals:
Quote:
He won the lottery and moved to California. Within five years, he had filed for bankruptcy.

Within five years he had another congregation at work not far from his home.
[/quote]If you're not convinced that it's grammatically necessary, then chalk it up to idiomatic language--but the 'had' tense is required here.
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   30 Sep 2010, 14:13
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KapTeacherEli wrote:
My understanding of this unusual grammatical construction is that we can read 'within twenty years' as 'before twenty years passed'. Thus, focusing only on the second clause after the comma, the earliest event is the boast becoming reality. Since the boast becomes reality before that time finishes passing, the perfect tense is appropriate (though not mandatory).

Hope this helps!


This sounds odd. Even if anyone could infer that 'within twenty years' is 'before twenty years passed' it is still (as you mentioned) unnecessary. And as far as I remember perfect is only used when doing otherwise distort meaning or causes and ambiguity regarding the occurrence of events. Both do not happen here, the sentence is perfectly clear when using the simple tense. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   30 Sep 2010, 14:20
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rafi wrote:
KapTeacherEli wrote:
My understanding of this unusual grammatical construction is that we can read 'within twenty years' as 'before twenty years passed'. Thus, focusing only on the second clause after the comma, the earliest event is the boast becoming reality. Since the boast becomes reality before that time finishes passing, the perfect tense is appropriate (though not mandatory).

Hope this helps!


This sounds odd. Even if anyone could infer that 'within twenty years' is 'before twenty years passed' it is still (as you mentioned) unnecessary. And as far as I remember perfect is only used when doing otherwise distort meaning or causes and ambiguity regarding the occurrence of events. Both do not happen here, the sentence is perfectly clear when using the simple tense. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Hi rafi,

You've got the right idea, but it's too narrow. The perfect tense is only required in those circumstances, but it can still be correctly used if the meaning is clear from other context.



See https://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfect.html
Quote:
If the Past Perfect action did occur at a specific time, the Simple Past can be used instead of the Past Perfect when "before" or "after" is used in the sentence. The words "before" and "after" actually tell you what happens first, so the Past Perfect is optional. For this reason, both sentences below are correct.

Examples:

She had visited her Japanese relatives once in 1993 before she moved in with them in 1996.
She visited her Japanese relatives once in 1993 before she moved in with them in 1996.
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   30 Sep 2010, 14:27
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KapTeacherEli wrote:
Hi rafi,

You've got the right idea, but it's too narrow. The perfect tense is only required in those circumstances, but it can still be correctly used if the meaning is clear from other context.



See https://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfect.html
Quote:
If the Past Perfect action did occur at a specific time, the Simple Past can be used instead of the Past Perfect when "before" or "after" is used in the sentence. The words "before" and "after" actually tell you what happens first, so the Past Perfect is optional. For this reason, both sentences below are correct.

Examples:

She had visited her Japanese relatives once in 1993 before she moved in with them in 1996.
She visited her Japanese relatives once in 1993 before she moved in with them in 1996.


OK, so according to that there are two correct answers in the answer choices in this question.
When I see two correct answers like these two and I remember that the GMAT prefers simplicity I will choose answer choice B and not A. So why is A the OA?
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   30 Sep 2010, 15:16
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KapTeacherEli wrote:
Excellent question, rafi. The answer is that I'm not reading carefully enough! The exception that I cited applies to sentences with specified times, which this sentence lacks. Good catch, and thanks for pointing it out.

That being said, the past perfect tense is used to stress that one event happens before another--again, in this case, before the 20 years passes. The 'had been' past perfect is not limited exclusively to cases where it's omission would make the sentence ambiguous. For that reason, the word 'within' in the past will take the past perfect tense. Here's a couple of examples lifted from periodicals:
Quote:
He won the lottery and moved to California. Within five years, he had filed for bankruptcy.

Within five years he had another congregation at work not far from his home.
If you're not convinced that it's grammatically necessary, then chalk it up to idiomatic language--but the 'had' tense is required here.


Thanks, I now got it. It is the idiomatic language that confused me to thinking that the 'within twenty years' does not represent an event for which it is necessary to define a past perfect when talking about another event.
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   12 Oct 2010, 12:03
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Financier wrote:
I alredy figured out my mistake and started to correct my post, but you are faster :) Could you answer my second question about antiquity?
Sure thing!

I've never heard of such a rule, nor seen it on the GMAT, which means you probably don't need to worry about it. However, English is a fantastically complex language, so it's entirely possible that you're correct; I'd love to see the source of that rule if you can track it down.

Hope that helps!
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   11 Oct 2016, 18:31
hemanthp wrote:
San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angeles a world city, yet within twenty years a powerful municipal had made this boast a reality .

yet within twenty years a powerful municipal had made this boast a reality
yet within twenty years a powerful municipal made this boast a reality
yet a powerful municipal within twenty years will make this boast a reality
yet this boast had become a reality within twenty years because of a powerful will municipally
yet within twenty years a municipal will had made this boast a powerful reality
+1 Kudos if you like the question and if you want the OE :) . this is from Kaplan and the OA is indeed correct!



1. Is my understanding right?

Time sequence: Moked---> had made the boast-----> 20 years.

Is that so, why mocked is not "had mocked" ?

2. Whenever we see Within 20 years/ year 0f 1920/ 5 days (some specific time), should we think of a sequence here? Is within carries the same(almost same) meaning as "BY"? ( By 1920 ... sub + past perfect.)
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   16 Oct 2016, 09:23
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nahid78 wrote:
hemanthp wrote:
San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angeles a world city, yet within twenty years a powerful municipal had made this boast a reality .

yet within twenty years a powerful municipal had made this boast a reality
yet within twenty years a powerful municipal made this boast a reality
yet a powerful municipal within twenty years will make this boast a reality
yet this boast had become a reality within twenty years because of a powerful will municipally
yet within twenty years a municipal will had made this boast a powerful reality
+1 Kudos if you like the question and if you want the OE :) . this is from Kaplan and the OA is indeed correct!



1. Is my understanding right?

Time sequence: Moked---> had made the boast-----> 20 years.

Is that so, why mocked is not "had mocked" ?

2. Whenever we see Within 20 years/ year 0f 1920/ 5 days (some specific time), should we think of a sequence here? Is within carries the same(almost same) meaning as "BY"? ( By 1920 ... sub + past perfect.)


This is one tricky concept in tense chapter - take a look at the comments in this thread:
v12-227178.html#p1747770
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   28 Jul 2018, 22:30

Official Explanation:


Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors:



While the original sentence is awkwardly worded, it is correct. Let's check the answer choices just to be safe.

Scan and Group the Answer Choices:



Choices (B), (C), and (E) all modify the verb structure. Choice (D) rewords the underlined phrase.

Eliminate Choices Until Only One Remains:


Choice (B) incorrectly changes to the simple past tense, "made."

Choices (C) and (E) needlessly break up the subject, thereby changing the meaning of the sentence.

Choice (D) distorts that meaning by making an adverb, "municipally," out of "municipal."

Answer Choice (A) correctly uses the past perfect "had made" as required because there are two past actions, one ending before the other. We use the past perfect for the action that happened first – making the boast a reality.
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   25 Jun 2019, 02:04
hemanthp wrote:
San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angeles a world city, yet within twenty years a powerful municipal had made this boast a reality .


A. yet within twenty years a powerful municipal had made this boast a reality
B. yet within twenty years a powerful municipal made this boast a reality
C. yet a powerful municipal within twenty years will make this boast a reality
D. yet this boast had become a reality within twenty years because of a powerful will municipally
E. yet within twenty years a municipal will had made this boast a powerful reality


egmat why's (B) not the answer? As per what I learned from the concept files, we can only use past perfect with the event that happened earlier while comparing two events, and here, the municipal making that boast a reality is clearly a 'later' event.

Could you please help me understand this?
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   20 Jul 2021, 05:20
rafi wrote:
KapTeacherEli wrote:
My understanding of this unusual grammatical construction is that we can read 'within twenty years' as 'before twenty years passed'. Thus, focusing only on the second clause after the comma, the earliest event is the boast becoming reality. Since the boast becomes reality before that time finishes passing, the perfect tense is appropriate (though not mandatory).

Hope this helps!


This sounds odd. Even if anyone could infer that 'within twenty years' is 'before twenty years passed' it is still (as you mentioned) unnecessary. And as far as I remember perfect is only used when doing otherwise distort meaning or causes and ambiguity regarding the occurrence of events. Both do not happen here, the sentence is perfectly clear when using the simple tense. Correct me if I'm wrong.





One of the main reasons why i always tend to avoid kaplan. But forgot to do so this time.

Posted from my mobile device
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink] New post   16 Apr 2023, 09:56
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StudiosTom wrote:

Official Explanation:


Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors:



While the original sentence is awkwardly worded, it is correct. Let's check the answer choices just to be safe.

Scan and Group the Answer Choices:



Choices (B), (C), and (E) all modify the verb structure. Choice (D) rewords the underlined phrase.

Eliminate Choices Until Only One Remains:


Choice (B) incorrectly changes to the simple past tense, "made."

Choices (C) and (E) needlessly break up the subject, thereby changing the meaning of the sentence.

Choice (D) distorts that meaning by making an adverb, "municipally," out of "municipal."

Answer Choice (A) correctly uses the past perfect "had made" as required because there are two past actions, one ending before the other. We use the past perfect for the action that happened first – making the boast a reality.


How is 'making the boast' an action that happened first ? I believe the mocking happened first, and then within twenty years someone made that mock a reality. Please clarify ?
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Re: San Franciscans of the 1890s mocked the claim that declared Los Angele [#permalink]
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