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The sentence is in past tense..because of use of would..
so the past perfect should be correct to show the verb sequencing ...therefore correct answer should be either A or B...out of A and B...A is correct.
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To get an administrative system that would do more good than damage, it would be far better to draw people from fields of life as diverse as possible; and that too, after they had developed the maturity to understand what really needed to be done.

a)after they had developed the maturity to understand what really needed to be done.
b)after they developed the maturity to understand what really needed to be done
c)after they have developed the maturity to understand what really needs to be done
d)after they develop the maturity to understand what really needed to be done
e)after they had developed the maturity to understand what really had needed to be done

Correct answer must be (C) for the highlighted errors in the other options..
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since the sentence is in past so shouldnt it be past perfect hence the choice a .can someone please explain why c
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Two big points about this q:

1) It isn't valid. The part after the semicolon is not an independent clause. Even if we change the semicolon to a comma, that part "and that too" doesn't make sense. Beware of questions that come from "Other"! You may be training yourself into some bad English.

2) The sentence is not in the past tense, and not every use of "would" necessitates the past tense. In this case, the fixed part of the sentence says "it would be far better to draw," indicating that we are talking about what would be good to do in the future!
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Can we eliminate choices on the basis of "needs" and "needed"?
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Two big points about this q:

1) It isn't valid. The part after the semicolon is not an independent clause. Even if we change the semicolon to a comma, that part "and that too" doesn't make sense. Beware of questions that come from "Other"! You may be training yourself into some bad English.

2) The sentence is not in the past tense, and not every use of "would" necessitates the past tense. In this case, the fixed part of the sentence says "it would be far better to draw," indicating that we are talking about what would be good to do in the future!

Hi,
DmitryFarber

Can you please clear some points about how to use semi colon.

1) Independent clause ; independent clause
2) Dependent clause ; independent clause
3)independent clause ; Dependent clause
4) Dependent clause ; independent clause ; dependent clause
5)independent clause; Dependent clause ; independent clause

Which of these are wrong and which are correct?

Thank you.
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stne, the answer is very simple. A semicolon must always separate independent clauses. Basically, you use a semicolon where you would use a period. There's only one special exception to this: a semicolon can also be used to separate complex lists. This is very rare on the GMAT, but you can see an example here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/tropical-bat ... 31457.html (This is also typically the only time you will see more than one semicolon in one sentence.)

So if you're not using a semicolon for that specialized purpose, it should always be between two independent clauses.
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DmitryFarber
stne, the answer is very simple. A semicolon must always separate independent clauses. Basically, you use a semicolon where you would use a period. There's only one special exception to this: a semicolon can also be used to separate complex lists. This is very rare on the GMAT, but you can see an example here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/tropical-bat ... 31457.html (This is also typically the only time you will see more than one semicolon in one sentence.)

So if you're not using a semicolon for that specialized purpose, it should always be between two independent clauses.

So I am assuming a semicolon must be in between 2 independent clauses , having a dependent clause on any side of a semicolon makes the usage of semicolon wrong.

1) Independent clause ; independent clause - Correct usage
2) Dependent clause ; independent clause - Incorrect
3)independent clause ; Dependent clause- Incorrect
4) Dependent clause ; independent clause ; dependent clause - incorrect
5)independent clause; Dependent clause ; independent clause - incorrect.

Are these correct?
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To get an administrative system that would do more good than damage, it would be far better to draw people from fields of life as diverse as possible; and that too, after they had developed the maturity to understand what really needed to be done.

a)after they had developed the maturity to understand what really needed to be done.
b)after they developed the maturity to understand what really needed to be done
c)after they have developed the maturity to understand what really needs to be done
d)after they develop the maturity to understand what really needed to be done
e)after they had developed the maturity to understand what really had needed to be done

I am sorry for this terrible question. Normally we do not start an IC with an 'and'. In addition and annoyingly all the choices are conjugated with a semicolon, meaning that the part after the semicolon is an IC, but per se it is not. The use of the subordinate conjunction 'after' renders the entire part a dependent clause and hence a fragment in effect
What can we learn from a question that has all the five choices as fragments?
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That's right, stne, since a semicolon must separate independent clauses (when not used to separate a complex list), all of the other uses you listed are necessarily wrong.

daagh, agreed, this question does not work!
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