Even though sub-Saharan Africa often evokes images of

Question

Even though sub-Saharan Africa often evokes images of drought and famine, researchers say that the area is the home of more than 2,000 grains, vegetables, roots, fruits, and other foods that  have the possibility for feeding the continent, even  other parts of the world.

(A) have the possibility for feeding the continent, even 
(B) have the possibility of feeding the continent, even of 
(C) could feed the continent, so even with 
(D) could feed the continent and even 
(E) could possibly feed the continent and, in addition, for even

Please can some one explain the use of could in this sentence.. Here the non-underlined part of sentence uses present tense then why is the necessity to use past tense could here? 
Please explain

Zarrolou · Accepted Answer

In the sentence could is used as an auxiliary verb: "could" expresses a possibility, an hypothetical situation, we don't have a necessity to use "could" though. 
The other answer have errors:

Even though sub-Saharan Africa often evokes images of drought and famine, researchers say that the area is the home of more than 2,000 grains, vegetables, roots, fruits, and other foods that  have the possibility for feeding the continent, even  other parts of the world.

A and B use a wrong idiom   "have the possibility of/ for"  .
E is redundant: as I said before "could" expresses a possibility and   "could possibly"   is redundant.
In addition E is not parallel : "feed the continent and (...) for even".

(C) could feed the continent,  so even with other parts of the world . Structure issue, and not parallel
(D) could feed the   continent   and even   other parts of the world  . Parallel and clear

vishnuns39620 · Answer

It is important to recall that "could feed"is not past tense exactly. It's a future"hope" . 
For example consider the sentence - "I am wealthy. I could/should help the poor."
The word could/should is a hopeful future tense and not past tense, but makes perfect grammar & sense. I'm not 100 percent sure what these are called, but it's similar to the conditional Clauses - " if I were a bird, I would fly" which also seems to have two different tense forms, but is grammatically correct.

Hope it helps!

skamal7 · Answer

SO can you point some differences when to use can and could?

vishnuns39620 · Answer

To be honest, they are both correct! But the word 'could' is more 'respect-giving'. Lets take a few examples :- When talking to your best friend, we'd rather say - " I can do it". But when talking to an elder/respected person, we'd rather say -" I could do it" In the same way, if you ask permission to a KING or someone higher above, the more correct way to ask would be - "Could I do it my LORD?" rather than "Can I do it my LORD?" A few more examples:- "May I come in Teacher?" vs "Might I come in Teacher?" - Both are the same in terms of grammar & meaning. But 'Might' is just very more humble/respect-giving. Hope it helps!

Skywalker18 · Answer

Even though sub-Saharan Africa often evokes images of drought and famine, researchers say that the area is the home of more than 2,000 grains, vegetables, roots, fruits, and other foods that  have the possibility for feeding the continent, even  other parts of the world.

(A) have the possibility for feeding the continent, even - "have the possibility of..." is an unidiomatic construction
(B) have the possibility of feeding the continent, even of - same as A
(C) could feed the continent, so even with - parallelism issue - "with" isn't parallel to anything in the other part of the sentence ; Run on - (c) is not grammatically a sentence; if you use "so" as a conjunction, it should be followed by an independent clause (i.e., another complete sentence)
(D) could feed the continent and even - Correct
(E) could possibly feed the continent and, in addition, for even - parallelism issue - "for" isn't parallel to anything in the other part of the sentence ; also has two instances of redundancy:
could + possibly
and + in addition

Answer D

ArtVandaley · Answer

daagh   egmat . Can you explain the usage of could here? I believe the sentence should have can.

RashedVai · Answer

if you understand what the sentence is saying—we're talking about feeding 2 different regions—it should be clear that the sentence is talking about some potentiality of feeding. take a hint from the other choices. (A), (B) and (E) use the word possibility/possibly..

" Can " means that these foods can actually feed the continent and/or other parts of the world right now. I.e., there's not just a potential; the foods are actually present in sufficient quantity to feed the entire continent NOW.

" Could " refers to a potential that may not yet have been realized.

hope it's helpful.

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

This question is based on Construction and Idiomatic Usage.

The phrase “possibility for” is idiomatically inappropriate. The appropriate phrase is ‘possibility of’. There is also a conjunction missing in this option to link the last part of the sentence to the rest of the sentence. So, Option A can be eliminated.

This option has the appropriate idiomatic usage – possibility of. However, the expression “have the possibility of feeding the continent” is awkward. The word ‘capability’ or ‘ability’ would be better suited to this sentence. So, Option B can be eliminated.

The conjunction ‘so’ does not make sense here, since the last part of the sentence is not a result or consequence of the first. The phrase “and so is the case” might have made the sentence logical. However, as it stands, Option C can be eliminated.

This option is wordy. The last part of the sentence has the transition words ‘and’ and ‘in addition to’. The second phrase is redundant. The preposition ‘for’ affects the parallelism because the sentence should state that the grains, vegetables etc. could feed the continent and even other parts of the world. Furthermore, the adverb ‘possibly’ is redundant since ‘could’ already conveys the idea of possibility. So, Option E can be eliminated.

Option D has the appropriate verb ‘could’, which conveys the idea of ability. The sentence thus conveys the idea that the various grains, vegetables etc. have the ability to feed the continent. This option also contains the conjunction ‘and’ that links the last part to the rest of the sentence. The adverb ‘even’ serves to emphasize that these grains, vegetables etc. are enough to feed other parts of the world in addition to the continent. 
 Therefore, D is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

VerbalBot · Answer

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