The percentage of people remaining single in Holland increased abruptl

Question

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The percentage of people remaining single in Holland increased abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and continued to rise more gradually over the next 10 years.

A) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland increased abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years.

B) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland increased abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and has continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years.

C) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland increased abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and had continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years.

D) There had been an abrupt increase in the percentage of people remaining single in Holland between 1980 and 1990 and it continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years.

E) There was an abrupt increase in the percentage of people remaining single in Holland between 1980 and 1990 which continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years.

Source - Chili Hot GMAT: Verbal Review

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
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THE PROMPT

• VERB TENSE: a few takeaways
→ As a general rule, GMAC prefers simple past (and simple present).

1. When events are finished; sequence is either clear or not important (the events happened simultaneously, for example); and no connection to the present exists, use simple past tense.

2. When one past event precedes another past event and sequence is not clear, most of the time, use past perfect (HAD + past participle verbED).
We also use past perfect to describe an event that happens up to a certain time in the past.
By the time X, Y  
 Correct:   By the time the strange winter fire reached Boulder, Colorado, most residents had evacuated.

3. When events or their effects start in the past and continue into the present, use present perfect, which is sometimes called the "bridge from past to present."
 Correct:   Extreme weather caused by global warming has decimated many parts of the world.

THE OPTIONS  
 
• Simple past tense is appropriate: two events in the past happened at or during a specified time and both are finished.

• The time (the "when") is fixed and discrete (not continuous).

• Both events ( increased  and  continued to rise ... over the next ten years ) are finished.
The first event ended in 1990.
The second event ended in 2000.
I realize that we are all a bit time-disoriented, but the current year is 2022.

KEEP

• The present perfect tense ( has continued ) is inconsistent with the timing of an event that took place in the fairly distant past (two decades ago) and that has no inherent or implicit connection to the present.
• It does not matter that the "continued to rise" occurred over a decade ("the next ten years"). That time period is  over. 
Saying "has continued" implies that the percentage is still rising, right now. Just one problem. It's more than 20 years later.
 ELIMINATE B

• The past perfect tense  had continued  is not required because we are not making a distinction between the sequence of two past tense events or trying to sort out which of two previous events happened first.
A certain group as a percentage the population increased sharply and continued to increase gradually for another decade.

• Even if you want to argue that a sequence does exist (first, from 1980 to 1990, the population increased abruptly and second, for the next ten years, the population continued to rise):
-- From the dates, the word  continued , and the phrase  to rise for the next ten years,  we know the sequence of events.

-- Worse, this sentence incorrectly renders the  later  event in the past perfect verb tense but should render the  earlier  event in past perfect.
That is, if past perfect were to be used (and it is not needed), we should see:
 The percentage of people remaining single in Holland  had increased abruptly  between 1980 and 1990 and continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years.

ELIMINATE C

• pronoun error / confusion
→  it  seems to refer to  an abrupt increase  but should refer to  the percentage of people remaining single .

• construction - passive construction
→ GMAC almost never uses phrases such as  There were, There are,  or  There had been. 
Take a look in the OGs. You will find only a handful of such questions.
The passive construction  there had been  is considered weak.
The strength of active construction is revealed by the better option (A): can you see that option D's construction sort of weighs you down?

• verb tense error
Finally, with respect to the past perfect verb tense, it is not warranted: we have dates. We know the sequence. We do not need  had been.

→ To test, insert "was" for "had been" and compare to option A.
Option A uses the simple past in active voice rather than passive voice. 
Option A wins.
ELIMINATE D

• As is the case in option D,  There was  is an inherently passive construction and not one favored by GMAC.

•  Which  should be preceded by a comma. 
In British English,  which  and  that  are interchangeable. Not so in formal U.S. English. Not so on the GMAT:
→ i]Which  introduces nonessential modifiers and is flanked by commas. 
→  That  introduces essential modifiers and is not flanked by commas.

• the antecedent of  which  is not clear. 
Does  which  refer to  the percentage of people  or to  an abrupt increase ? 
ELIMINATE E

The best answer is A.

COMMENTS

theirrationalmind  (great username),  TBT  , and  thakurrani81  , welcome to SC Butler.

theirrationalmind  , I like the way you explained how and why option D tempted and finally won you.
You reasoned well; you just took one small wrong turn—one that I suspect you will not take again.
I am glad that you liked the question.

(Just to be clear to others: it doesn't matter whether two events happen in two different decades.
I can say, "He  studied  French in high school as a teenager but  decided  to learn Farsi when he enrolled in night school in his thirties.")

TBT  , I hope that my explanation answers your question about why option D is incorrect.
(Sequence is clear: no need for past perfect. GMAC prefers simple past when possible. Passive construction typically creates a weaker sentence. The antecedent of the pronoun  it  is not very clear or not very sensible or both.)

thakurrani81  , thank you for answering that very question. Nice job.

This question is subtle and difficult.
If you missed it, do not worry. 
Next time you won't fall for the trap.

Nice work, all. 
 zhanbo , I am bumping you to Best Community Reply.
Stay safe, everyone.

zhanbo · Answer

My answer is  (A) . It took me 01:23.

(A) Simple past tense "increased" and "continued" are paired together to describe a phenomenon from 1980-2000.

(B) Present perfect tense of "has continued to rise" indicates that such gradual growth continues until today. But the sentence discussed a phenomenon from 1980-2000.

(C) Past perfect tense of "had continued" incorrectly suggests that what happened between 1990-2000 occurred before what happened between 1980-1990.

(D) "it continued" = "an  abrupt  increase in the percentage of people continued " to rise more  gradually . The meaning is rather incongruous.

(E) (1) There should be a comma before "which"
(2) The antecedent of which is probably "an abrupt increase in the percentage of people remaining single in Holland". It does not make sense to say "an  abrupt  increase in the percentage of people remaining single in Holland " continued to rise more  gradually .

Carcass · Answer

Both X and Y happened in the past .

The right time line is X >>> Y and Y is the continuation of X

A) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland  increased  abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and  continued  to rise more gradually over the next ten years.

Correct

B) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland  increased  abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and  has continued  to rise more gradually over the next ten years.

C) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland  increased  abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and  had continued  to rise more gradually over the next ten years.

D) There had been an abrupt  increase  in the percentage of people remaining single in Holland between 1980 and 1990 and it  continued  to rise more gradually over the next ten years.

E) There was an abrupt  increase  in the percentage of people remaining single in Holland between 1980 and 1990 which  continued  to rise more gradually over the next ten years.

A is pretty straight as an answer choice

Usually in the all underlined sentences the key is the flowing or unfolding of the same. The phrase must have a balance.

theirrationalmind · Answer

I got it down to 2 answer choices - (A) and (D)

Here was my thinking for choosing (D):

I got suckered into choosing (D) purely because of the “had been” and use of the Past perfect tense.

I was also aware that the pronoun “It” created a serious ambiguity error.

The only reason I didn’t choose (A) was because both past tenses “increased” and “continued” make it sound as if 1980-1990 and 1990-2000 were the same points in time, which is technically not the case.. one occurred before the other

Good question this

Posted from my mobile device

ElninoEffect · Answer

A) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland  increased  abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and  continued  to rise more gradually over the next ten years. 
 Right tense used, sentence is nice crisp and parallel portraying clear meaning.

B) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland  increased  abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and   has continued   to rise more gradually over the next ten years. 
 Both events are happening in the past use of present perfect tense is wrong.

C) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland  increased  abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and   had continued   to rise more gradually over the next ten years.
 Use of past perfect tense changes the meaning of the sentence from the original sentence.

D) There  had been  an abrupt increase in the percentage of people remaining single in Holland between 1980 and 1990 and  it  continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years. 
 Wrong tense used. It is representing what subject.?

E) There was an abrupt increase in the percentage of people remaining single in Holland between 1980 and 1990  which  continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years.
 which seems to modify holland: which is wrong.

TBT · Answer

Why is D wrong here? Can't understand this

thakurrani81 · Answer

IMO option D has pronoun error. what does 'it' refers to? think abt that

generis · Answer

You can find the official explanation by clicking  here   .

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  TBT ,

We hope this finds you well.

Having gone through the question and your query, we believe we can resolve your doubt.

Firstly, Option D suffers from pronoun ambiguity, as it is unclear whether "it" refers to "increase" or "percentage".

Secondly, Option D incorrectly uses conjunction ("and" in this case) to join the independent clauses "There had been an abrupt...1990" and "it continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years"; please remember, semicolons and the "comma + conjunction" are used to join independent clauses.

Thirdly, Option D redundantly uses the past perfect tense verb "had been" alongside the phrase "over the next ten years"; please remember, when the chronology is clear because of terms such as "before/after/when/earlier/later"…or because of clear mention of dates, use past perfect tense is not required, though not incorrect either.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

The percentage of people remaining single in Holland increased abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and continued to rise more gradually over the next 10 years.

A) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland increased abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years. 
'continued' and increased are in sync , in addition the meaning is perfect therefore let us hang on to it

B) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland increased abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and has continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years. 
'has continued ' gives us the meaning as though the phenomenon is continuing till date which is not the case therefore out

C) The percentage of people remaining single in Holland increased abruptly between 1980 and 1990 and had continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years.
'had continued' brings in the meaning that what happened in the previous time frame happened in the succeeding decade which is not the case therefore out

D) There had been an abrupt increase in the percentage of people remaining single in Holland between 1980 and 1990 and it continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years. 
The meaning isn't perfectly conveyed therefore out

E) There was an abrupt increase in the percentage of people remaining single in Holland between 1980 and 1990 which continued to rise more gradually over the next ten years.
which should be preceded by a comma , distorted meaning therefore out

THerefore IMO A

The percentage of people remaining single in Holland increased abruptl

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The percentage of people remaining single in Holland increased abruptl

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