V05-30

Question

Reporting that one of  its many obstacles had been  a citizens’ group seeking to preserve historic buildings, developers announced a revision of plans to tear down the city’s original post office in order to expand a luxury hotel’s parking lot.

A. its many obstacles had been
B. its many obstacles had turned out to be
C. its many obstacles was
D. their many obstacles had been
E. their many obstacles is

sayantanc2k · Accepted Answer

No, the original sentence intends to convey that the obstacles had been there before the developers announced. It is not intended to be meant that they are STILL obstacles. Hence D is better than E.

When using a verb  within  a statement / report that happened in the past, it is generally safe to use a past perfect, unless the statement is an universal truth. In this case the statement is NOT a universal truth. The obstacle may OR may not STILL be an obstacle.

Bunuel · Answer

Official Solution:

Reporting that one of  its many obstacles had been  a citizens’ group seeking to preserve historic buildings, developers announced a revision of plans to tear down the city’s original post office in order to expand a luxury hotel’s parking lot.

A. its many obstacles had been
B. its many obstacles had turned out to be
C. its many obstacles was
D. their many obstacles had been
E. their many obstacles is

This sentence tests agreement between a possessive noun and its antecedent, as well as the correct use of verb tense. The antecedent  developers , even though it comes after the underlined possessive pronoun, still requires the plural pronoun  their . Additionally, the developers are just announcing a revision of plans based on previous problems, indicating that the correct verb form is  had been .
 
A. The possessive pronoun  its  does not agree with the plural  developers .
 
B.  Its  does not agree with  developers , and this option is unnecessarily wordy.
 
C. The verb form  is  is incorrect in this sentence.
 
D. The pronoun  their  agrees with the antecedent  developers , and the verb form  had been  is appropriate to the sentence.
 
E.  Is  is incorrect verb form for this sentence.

Answer: D

dina98 · Answer

how can D be better than E? Is not it no longer an obstacle? Even if they decide to try their old plan, it IS still an obstacle right?

Sachin07 · Answer

In option (E) can the answer choice be rectified if IS is replaced with WAS.

sayantanc2k · Answer

It depends on the meaning. If the meaning intended is that the obstacle existed at the same time of announcement, then "was" is alright.

Suppose that the announcement is in simple present:
 Developers announce that there is an obstacle. 
The past form of the above sentence is:
 Developers announced that there was an obstacle.

Now consider another announcement in present:
 Developers announce that there was (or has been) an obstacle. 
The past form of the above sentence is:
 Developers announced that there had been an obstacle.

valardohaeris · Answer

Reporting that one of its many problems had been the recent extended sales
slump in women’s apparel, the seven-store retailer said it would start a
three-month liquidation sale in all of its stores.
a. its many problems had been the recent
b. its many problems has been the recently
c. its many problems is the recently
d. their many problems is the recent
e. their many problems had been the recent

This is a problem from OG. The official answer is "A" . C is completely wrong because it violates the tense as it doesn't show completed action.

sayantanc2k · Answer

We are not clear what your query is. For this question, A cannot be the answer because the singular pronoun "its" does not agree with its plural antecedent "developers". Also D is the OA for this question, not C.

ShrutiC · Answer

as the solution mentions The Correct Verb tense is Past Perfect Tense . Can you please Elaborate What are the 2 events which take place here.
Event 1 : reporting that their obstacle was citizen's group.
Event2: reporters announced.

Aren't these 2 independent ??

chaudhurysr · Answer

With due respect, I think this is a  poor-quality  question, and needs revision.

Had been (past perfect) can be used only when the 1st event (obstacle) ended before the 2nd event (announcement) happened. If 1st event was in progression at the time 2nd event happened, then we need to use Past Continuous.

On the question statement, we have: citizens’ group  seeking  to preserve historic buildings. Doesn't that mean event 1 was in progression?

If we are saying that event 1 really ended before event 2 started, then I think we have a logical flaw. If event 1 ended, that means this obstacle didn't exist. That mean citizen's group did not have any objection.  . So why would the developers revise their plan when the obstacle didn't exist anymore?

I think the intention of this question was to test us on Past Perfect tense, and hence I feel the question statement needs to be revised to indicate that event 1 ended before event 2 started.

NickBrady · Answer

I think this is a  poor-quality  question and the explanation isn't clear enough, please elaborate.

2794Aditya · Answer

Because the event of announcing was in the past, reporting that one of their obstacles "IS" cannot be correct. I should be either "WAS" or "HAD BEEN" and as only one of them is present the answer is D.

I'm not clear whether the use of past perfect tense denotes end of the event or start of the event before the other. If latter is the case, then I see no problem but, in the first case the sentence is logically not in place.
 daagh  sir, could you please clarify the concept ?

philipssonicare · Answer

"and the verb form had been is appropriate to the sentence."
" Is  is incorrect verb form for this sentence."
These are low quality explanations. We want to learn, not merely be corrected.

bb · Answer

It is an explanation to a question.... I would say that most of our explanations are very much to the point and do not elaborate a whole lot or take detours to discuss the underlying grammar rules. Sorry if you were expecting something else

I think we can consider a separate feature that would advise someone who gets a question wrong some materials and links to brush up rather than rewriting each and every explanation that people may not even read...

aviddd · Answer

I chose E as the answer since I thought "is" is the correct tense.

Developers are announcing a revision to resolve some obstacle. This means the obstacle still exists. "had been" implies that the obstacle existed in the past which is now mitigated. If it is already resolved, then developers need not change their plans.

If the option was "has been", I would have gone with this. "had been" is incorrect, IMO.

Jayantm07 · Answer

Ahhh Fifth poor-quality question in the same test.

The answer should be E without any iota of doubt. Reminds me of a similar OG question

When developers announced the thing was still happening. Had been would have been used if it was done and dusted in the past.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/a-1972-agree ... tml#p53762

A 1972 agreement between Canada and the United States reduced the amount of phosphates that municipalities had been allowed to dump into the Great Lakes.

(A) reduced the amount of phosphates that municipalities had been allowed to dump

(B) reduced the phosphate amount that municipalities had been dumping

(C) reduces the phosphate amount municipalities have been allowed to dump

(D) reduced the amount of phosphates that municipalities are allowed to dump

(E) reduces the amount of phosphates allowed for dumping by municipalities

Similar question OA is D.

Bunuel chetan2u bb sayantanc2k

wickedvikram · Answer

I totally agree with you. Even I selected E and not D, because earlier I committed the mistake of using "had been" for an existing problem in the OG question you mentioned. OG clearly mentioned why my answer was incorrect and this question is exactly the same. 
I don't claim to be 100% confident with my answer, however I would need an explanation that would not contradict OG or at least show the difference, if any, between these 2 questions.

wickedvikram · Answer

He is referring to a similar question that he has written for which C is the right answer. Using that logic, he is saying that E, not D, must be the right answer, irrespective of OA. I agree with him.

ShaunakSawant · Answer

sayantanc2k  I didnt understand the sequencing of the events. Since had been is used without a verb after it, it should ideally act as simple past tense. and thus both the events obstacles faced and announcement made should happen within the same time frame.

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