The Audubon Society and other conservation groups, concerned over what

The setting of the passage is clearly in the present tense. The ‘concerned’ here is a participle, describing the mindset of the subject and not a working verb. Hence we need a clear present tense such as ‘perceive’ or ‘are perceiving’ to match the ‘are preparing”

So all choices containing the past tense ‘perceived’ and for that matter even he present perfect ‘have perceived’ are out (A and B)
C misses the bus because of using the shoddy 'being the serious thereat',
D is also incorrect due to the unidiomatic ‘threatening of’.
E remains the best choice
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Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Tenses + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• The simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past.
• The simple present continuous tense is used to refer to an action that is currently ongoing and continuous in nature.
• The present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present.
• “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the present perfect tense verb “have perceived” to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame; remember, the simple present tense is used to refer to events that take place in the current time frame, and the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present. Further, the sentence formed by Option A uses the passive and needlessly wordy phrase “to be the serious threatening of the environment as”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

B: This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb “perceived” to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame; remember, the simple present tense is used to refer to events that take place in the current time frame, and the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past. Further, the sentence formed by Option B uses the needlessly wordy phrase “as posed”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

C: This answer choice incorrectly uses the word “being”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy; remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

D: This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple present continuous tense verb “are perceiving” to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame; remember, the simple present tense is used to refer to events that take place in the current time frame, and the simple present continuous tense is used to refer to an action that is currently ongoing and continuous in nature.

E: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses the simple present tense verb “perceive” to refer to an action that takes place in the current time frame. Further, the sentence formed by Option E is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



To understand the concept of "Simple Continuous Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



To understand the concept of "Present Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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E is better

1. It has to be "threat to the enviroment" instead of "threatening of the environment".
2. The groups are preparing for some action so they still "perceive" the policies to be "the threat". "perceive as" would be the correct.

Hello all,

I saw some other posts on this question, but the responses weren't specific regarding the underlying grammar on each answer choice. Can someone please take a crack at breaking this problem down, answer choice by answer choice. I got lost in the verb tense shuffle. How do we know whether to choose "perceive" or "perceived" in this problem. Also, could selection (B) be grammatically correct if the answer wasn't followed by "as." I appreciate all the help.

Thanks!

The Audubon Society and other conservation groups, concerned over what they have perceived to be the serious threatening of the environment as posed by the policies of the government, are preparing for a major political effort.

(A) have perceived to be the serious threatening of the environment as
(B) perceived as the serious threat to the environment as
(C) perceive being the serious threat to the environment
(D) are perceiving as the serious threatening of the environment
(E) perceive as the serious threat to the environment

tonebeeze,

Daagh is right on this one. You know that you are in the present tense because the last clause of the sentence says "are preparing." Since this part is a) not underlined and b) in the present tense, you know the sentence must be in the present tense.

Yours is a great question, though, as very often people stop reading after they get to the end of the underlined portion. That's a really risky thing to do, because without this part of the sentence, the whole thing could legitimately be placed in the past tense.

Great question!

Brett

The Audubon Society and other conservation groups, concerned over what they have
perceived to be the serious threatening of the environment as posed by the policies of
the government, are preparing for a major political effort.

In the main sentence, there are two commas. The portion between commas is a modifier.
The main clause is " The Audubon Society and other conservation groups are preparing for a major political effort".

(A) have perceived to be the serious threatening of the environment as - awkward construction--"to be serious threatening" sounds as if it is going to be a a threat....Use of "as" is not appropriate... "as" can be used to show cause (used as conjunction) , to show "in what position or authority"(used as preposition) or to compare similarity between actions in two clauses (used as conjunction)

(B) perceived as the serious threat to the environment as - "they perceived" mean they no more perceive now yet are preparing for a political effort

(C) perceive being the serious threat to the environment - "being the serious threat" is ambiguous. "they perceive being the serious threat"..."being serious threat" may refer to "they" and define how they perceive.

(D) are perceiving as the serious threatening of the environment - "are perceiving" is in present continuous tense. The main clause also is in present continuous tense. hence it sounds as if both "perceiving" and "preparing" are occurring simultaneously.

(E) perceive as the serious threat to the environment --"they perceive" is simple present..hence mean they perceived earlier, perceive now and may continue to perceive....it makes sense with the tense of the main clause...."as" is used as preposition ....preposition should be followed by noun ....the noun is "threat"...

So correct answer is E

I have a question. In E does "posed" modify "threat" or "environment"?
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here posed is a verb-ed modifier that modifies threat. "here to the environment" provides additional information about the threat
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(E) perceive as the serious threat to the environment

Logically only a threat can be posed by some measures such as policies; an environment cannot be posed by policies. Okay?
'To environment' is an integral part of the threat in the context, revealing its relevance to the Audubon Society, which is an environment-protection movement. So, we should read them jointly rather than separately
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Posed by the policies of the govt seems to modify environment. But i believe the phrase should present the cause and as is required after environment.
Also in option E i believe tense should be past tense rather than present tense.

Please explain.
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Hello sumanainampudi,

I will be glad to help you out with this one.

Let's take a good look at the sentence with correct answer choice E:

The Audubon Society and other conservation groups, concerned over what they perceive as the serious threat to the environment posed by the policies of the government, are preparing for a major political effort.



Modifier Usage

There is no problem with the usage of posed by the policies... directly after the noun phrase the serious threatening of the environment. The verb-ed modifier posed does not modify the immediate preceding noun environment because this modification makes no sense.

The modifier actually modifies the entire preceding noun phrase the serious threatening of the environment because it is the threats that have been posed by the policies.

At e-GMAT, we call such modification a noun modifier modifying a slightly far away noun. You can learn about this modification with great details, explanations and official and unofficial examples in our very famous article named Noun Modifiers can Modify slightly far away noun in the following link:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/noun-modifiers-can-modify-slightly-far-away-noun-135868.html

Verb Tense Usage

Please note that the main verb of the sentence are preparing is written in present continuous/progressive tense. This usage suggests that the sentence has been written in the present context.

The mentioned groups in the sentence are preparing to do something. It means that what they have observed is still relevant. This is the reason why they are going to do something about it. Hence, use of simple present tense verb perceive is also correct.



Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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The Audubon Society and other conservation groups, concerned over what they have perceived to be the serious threatening of the environment as posed by the policies of the government, are preparing for a major political effort.

(E) perceive as the serious threat to the environment

I thought E is wrong because of "the environment posed". without "AS" posed will refer to environment, which seems wrong to me. why E is correct then?

It is wrong to assume that an adjectival 'ed' modifier necessarily modifies the noun it touches, with a comma or no comma; it is the logic that drives such modifications. When nouns have critical prepositional phrases that are intervening, as in the 'threat to the environment', then it is actually the threat rather than the environment that is being modified. When logic does not accommodate, the 'ed' modifier has an imperative need to fetch a distant yet logical match than go by an absurd nearby one.

I do not think we can fault ' E' for its supposedly flawed appearance.
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daagh egmat

can we write the part with modifier as "...threat posed by govt. policies to the environment"..??

thx

The Audubon Society and other conservation groups, concerned over what they have perceived to be the serious threatening of the environment as posed by the policies of the government, are preparing for a major political effort.

Meaning Analysis: A specific society and other conservative groups are concerned over the serious threats to the environment. These threats are because of the government policies. Due to this concern, the society and other groups are preparing a political effort (probably they are setting up their own political party so that they could change the policies once they over throw the ruling party)

Sentence Structure:
The Audubon Society and other conservation groups (Subject) (Compound noun - Two nouns joined by the marker "and" thus making the noun plural)
,concerned over what they have perceived to be the serious threatening of the environment as (Modifier modifying the compound noun)
posed by the policies of the government, (Modifier modifying the noun "threatening of the environment")
are preparing (Verb)
for a major political effort. (Object of the sentence)

(A) have perceived to be the serious threatening of the environment as - Incorrect.
(1) To be - This makes the sentence inferior. We could simplify the sentence by stating replacing "to be" with "as". "To be" can be used in a sentence but there are very rare occasions in which the sentence quality is not inferior by this usage.
(2) threatening of the environment - Awkward and wordy structure. Why not say "threat to the environment" or "environment threat"
(3) Have perceived - The sentence is in the present context since it ends with a simple present tense "are preparing". Keeping this usage in mind I believe we can use present perfect tense "Have perceived" since it states that the perception existed in the past and still continues to exist.

(B) perceived as the serious threat to the environment as - Incorrect.
(1) Perceived - As mentioned earlier, since the sentence is in the present context we cannot term this perception (which is the cause of the groups to carry out a political effort) as something that occurred in the past and is no longer valid. Think about it, how can the cause be in the past and the result in the present.
(2) As - The threat was because of the political party. By placing the "as" out there we are making the sentence inferior and a bit complicated since there are many usages of as.

(C) perceive being the serious threat to the environment. Incorrect
Correct usage of being -
(1) Acting as a noun - "Being disrespectful to elders is not acceptable"
(2) Progressive tense - "the tenants are being evacuated from the building"

(D) are perceiving as the serious threatening of the environment. Incorrect. As mentioned in (A)

(E) perceive as the serious threat to the environment - Correct.

I would like to go ahead an explain the sentence structure by placing the correct choice (E)

The Audubon Society and other conservation groups, concerned over what they perceive as the serious threat to the environment posed by the policies of the government, are preparing for a major political effort.

The Audubon Society and other conservation groups (Compound noun)
, concerned over what (beginning of noun modifier in a COMMA PAIR ; The modifier is giving as additional information about the compound noun)
they (Pronoun referring to compound noun)
perceive (Verb)
as (As + Noun - here the noun states a function. They perceive what? "the serious threat to the environment")
the serious threat ("Serious" modifying "threat")
to the environment (additional information stating telling us what is the threat on/about)
posed by the policies (noun modifier modifying "threat") (the noun modifier can jump over the preceding noun "environment" because "to the environment" is additional information about the previous noun "threat")
of the government, (prepositional phrase modifying "policies") (end of noun modifier in a COMMA PAIR)
are preparing (Verb)
for a major political effort. (Object of the sentence)

Key Takeaway from this question

(1) Read the entire sentence including the non-underlined part of the sentence . Doing so helps us understand the entire meaning + verb tenses of the sentence

(2) Usage of "being". Check option (C)

(3) How noun modifiers can modify a slightly far away noun. Noun + additional information ending in a noun + noun modifier, here the modifier can modify the slightly far-away noun if the preceding noun does not make sense and no ambiguity is created

(4) Importance of understanding the meaning of the sentence