Some historians estimate that in the Great Chicago Fire of

Question

Some historians estimate that in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, twice as much acreage was destroyed  than had earlier been  ravaged in Napoleon's Moscow burnings of 1812 and the Great Fire of London of 1666 combined.

a. than had earlier been
b. than the amount that was earlier
c. over the amount that was previously
d. as had earlier been
e. as was

mikemcgarry · Accepted Answer

First of all, let me go on record on saying ---- I don't like this question. It doesn't strike me as holding up the standards of GMAT SC. I don't have the highest opinion of this particular source. https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/kaplan-gma ... ok-review/ I will also say --- there is nothing black & white wrong about choice (D). The first three are clearly and unambiguously wrong. Between choices (D) & (E) there are shades of grey. The three things make (E) preferable, but two of them are sketchy and wouldn't be the sole deciding split on a real GMAT SC. (1) in (D) the adverb "earlier" breaks up the verb --- this can be considered "in poor taste", but the GMAT SC is never this picayune. This is not a "stand alone split" that would indicate an answer is clearly wrong. (2) (E) is more concise --- that genuinely is a GMAT SC standard --- all other things being equal, go with the shorter and more direct answer (3) the issue of case ---- on the one hand, past-perfect is a way to indicate that one past action came before another past action. Some authors would say --- if some other means (such as dates/times or sequence words --- "before", "after") clearly indicate the sequence of events, then it is redundant to indicate the sequence with verb tense as well. These authors would say the use of the past perfect in this sentence is correct ..... (a) I had already arrived when she made her grand entrance to the party. .... because nothing else clearly indicates the sequence, but they would object to ..... (b) I had already arrived before she made her grand entrance to the party. ... because both the past perfect verb and the word "before" indicate the sequence, and these purists would say the double-indication of the time sequence is redundant. I will say --- I absolutely love grammar and grammatical distinctions, but when it gets into this territory, I think some people have too much time on their hands and need to get out of the house more. More to the point, I have never seen this particular distinction tested on GMAT SC. Nevertheless, I believe this distinction #3 is exactly what this particular question is testing, and as such, I think that makes it a relatively poor SC question. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

dchow23 · Answer

idiom- twice "as much as" so down to d or e
 I picked E but i guess the answer is D for tense purposes??

Not sure

thevenus · Answer

IMO -D

A, B - "Twice" would not fit with "than" here because "twice"is standard but "than"is for comparison INAPPROPRIATE for action1 comaprison with action 2 and action 3
C-amount? 
D-as had earlier been P of Q and J of K.
E- incorrect usage

daagh · Answer

A comparative idiom started with - as -has to be completed with – as; D and E survive. The other two fires occurred earlier than Chicago fire. Therefore, it is appropriate to use past perfect; D is the choice

fameatop · Answer

IMO Past perfect is used if we want to establish the sequence of time for 2 different actions. In this sentence it is clearly mentioned that Moscow's burning happened in  1812  & Great fire of London in  1666 . 
Moreover simplicity is preferred on GMAT. 
Still option E is incorrect & D correct -  WHY?

Can you let me know where am i making a mistake.

Fame

iliavko · Answer

I think that E is correct here. Yes it is true that "had been" would give us a time marker to correctly date the events in thesentence.

However, we know that the Chicago fire took place in 1987 and the two others took place in 1812 and 1666, so the sentence tells us when those events took place, therefore we have the time markers already provided. That makes the use of had been optional.

Plus, E has the correct paralel use of "as much was (destroyed) + as was (ravaged)" somehting you don't have in D.

IMHO

robu · Answer

I think in option D , earlier is redundant. 'had' itself clears the meaning. Thats why I did not pick option D but chose E.

sayantanc2k · Answer

Usage of past perfect with a time expression such as before, previously, earlier etc. may be considered redundant but is not grammatically incorrect altogether. Past perfect is a definite necessity here to indicate that an event happened at a point prior to another event - a direct bearing with another event makes the use of perfect mandatory.

Hence although there could be redundancy issue, it is less serious than the problem in E (i.e. use of simple past). We are supposed to choose the best answer among the given ones !

My suggestion would be that when we have two choices that cannot be eliminated on any other ground and one of them has this issue, only then eliminate on this basis.

RMD007 · Answer

Can anyone please explain the use of past perfect tense here?

I know that past perfect tense makes sense here, because it shows the correct time frame. But, as far as I know, we use past perfect tense and simple past tense only when the events are related to each other.
In this case, since there is not logical relation in these events, I chose E.

sayantanc2k · Answer

A comparison may be considered a logical relation. Here "as.. as" compares an event in past and two events in past of past. Hence use of past perfect may be considered alright. However the option would be better if the word "earlier" were not there. You may also refer to the explanation of Mike above: some-historians-estimate-that-in-the-great-chicago-fire-of-135063.html#p1176893

Nightmare007 · Answer

The use of past perfect is apt to show that The Neapolitan war occurred before 1800 date.

. Or we don't know when it occurred Great Chicago occurred first or Neapolitan occurred first. Meaning. answer is D.

alamkeer · Answer

Dear Daagh,

When the time line is explicitly mentioned in the sentence, is it necessary to use the past oerfect ? Why not E in this question ?

Posted from my mobile device

Pasharma1 · Answer

‘twice’ does not fit well with ‘than’. ‘twice’ is standard but ‘than’ is for comparisons. Take out A and B.

‘was’ is the wrong tense here.

D is the correct answer.

gmat1393 · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors:

The underlined portion uses the incorrect construction, “as much … than." The phrase "as much" must be followed by another "as."

Scan and Group the Answer Choices:

There are a number of ways we can group the answers. Let's start with the error we already identified. Choices (A) and (B) start with the word "than," choice (C) starts with the word "over," and choices (D) and (E) start with the word "as."

Eliminate Choices Until Only One Remains:

For reasons explained above, the underlined portion must start with the word "as." Eliminate choices (A), (B), and (C) for failing to do so.

The sentence also refers to an event that occurred before another event in the past. The Great Chicago Fire occurred in 1871, while Napoleon's Moscow burnings occurred in 1812 and the Great Fire of London occurred in 1666. Therefore, the past perfect tense must be used to refer to these earlier fires. Because choice (E) uses the simple past tense, it can be eliminated.

(D) is the only choice to use the correct construction "as much … as," while maintaining the proper verb tense. It is correct.

TAKEAWAY: When more than one answer choice fixes the first error you spotted, eliminate those that introduce other errors.

vibhansh2010 · Answer

We do know which occurred first. Did you not read the question? Years are clearly mentioned.

vibhansh2010 · Answer

Since specific time markers are given, there is no ambiguity about which event happened earlier. Then why is past perfect tense used with D as answer and not E? Plus, *earlier* in D makes a redundancy as the past perfect tense+years already makes it clear that the latter 2 events happened earlier.

KVISHUINFO · Answer

Parallelism

1. as should go with as like "as much as"

2. Whenever two events are compared had should go with the oldest event.

Clearly: Ans: D

Posted from my mobile device

RajPushp · Answer

D is wrong, "had" is not required when time of event is clearly mentioned.

Some historians estimate that in the Great Chicago Fire of

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Some historians estimate that in the Great Chicago Fire of

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