At last month's meeting Mr. Iqbal, the chair of a business association

Question

At last month's meeting Mr. Iqbal, the chair of a business association for immigrants, described the most significant problems he  had experienced in adapting to his new country's business regulations and outlined several actions that he had taken to deal  with those problems.

A - had experienced in adapting to his new country's business regulations and outlined several actions that he had taken to deal
B - experienced, adapted to the business regulations of his new country, and outlined several actions that had been taken in his dealing
C - had experienced in adapting to the business regulations of his new country and in outlining several actions that he had taken in dealing
D - experienced while adapting to his new country's business regulations and outlining several actions taken in his dealing
E - experienced in adapting to his new country's business regulations and outlined several actions with which he had taken in dealing

daagh · Accepted Answer

Rocky

The chronology 
1. Iqbal had experienced problems in adapting to his new country's business regulations -- This is the oldest event and hence needs a past perfect. 
2. He had taken several actions to deal with those problems. -- This is the second oldest and hence needs past perfect.
3. He described those problems and outlined those steps simultaneously in the meeting held last month. -They are the last of the events mentioned and hence both need a simple past.

A must be the answer. 
All other choices mix up the events and muddy the meaning

grb26 · Answer

A - had experienced in adapting to his new country's business regulations and outlined several actions that he had taken to deal - No issues in first read
B - experienced, adapted to the business regulations of his new country, and outlined several actions that had been taken in his dealing - a past perfect tense will be appropriate in this context
C - had experienced in adapting to the business regulations of his new country and in outlining several actions that he had taken in dealing - changes the meaning of original sentence by structure 'and in outlining...'
D - experienced while adapting to his new country's business regulations and outlining several actions taken in his dealing -a past perfect tense will be appropriate in this context 
E - experienced in adapting to his new country's business regulations and outlined several actions with which he had taken in dealing -a past perfect tense will be appropriate in this context

rocky620 · Answer

daagh  sir, can you help in identifying the correct timeline in this question.

here past perfect is used twice in the correct answer, which does not any event post those events except the meeting discussion.

saukrit · Answer

GMATNinja   GMATNinja two  EMPOWERgmatVerbal  , How is A correct here...it uses past perfect twice without any second event...

Manukaran · Answer

Hello Saukrit, I believe "described" is that second event that you are asking about.

rocky620 · Answer

daagh  sir, thank you.
I took the describing of problems and outlining of steps as a single event.

aalam383 · Answer

medinib · Answer

At last month's meeting Mr. Iqbal, the chair of a business association for immigrants,  described  the most significant problems he  had experienced in adapting to his new country's business regulations and  outlined  several actions that he had taken to deal  with those problems.

Outlined  should be parallel with  described 
 C  and  D  are out
 B  changes the meaning of the sentence.
 E  -  several actions with which he had taken in dealing
 
 A  is the answer

A - had experienced in adapting to his new country's business regulations and outlined several actions that he had taken to deal
B - experienced, adapted to the business regulations of his new country, and outlined several actions that had been taken in his dealing
C - had experienced in adapting to the business regulations of his new country and in outlining several actions that he had taken in dealing
D - experienced while adapting to his new country's business regulations and outlining several actions taken in his dealing
E - experienced in adapting to his new country's business regulations and outlined several actions with which he had taken in dealing

mangamma · Answer

OE

The intended purpose of the sentence is to describe two things that Mr. Iqbal did at the meeting: First, he described some problems that he had faced in adapting to a new business climate, and, second, he outlined the actions he had taken in order to handle those problems. To make sense, the sentence must place these two things in parallel. The sentence should also specify that Mr. Iqbal himself took the actions described, rather than that they simply were taken (by some unknown actor).

(A) CORRECT. This sentence properly places Mr. Iqbal's two actions ("described" and "outlined") in parallel. The past perfect verbs "had experienced" and "had taken" are appropriately used for two actions that had been completed by, but still had a tangible effect on, the situation described in the sentence. The phrase "in adapting" is properly used to describe problems that Mr. Iqbal had experienced in the process of adapting to the regulations, and the phrase "to deal" is properly used to describe the goal or intent of Mr. Iqbal's subsequent actions.

(B) This sentence places "adapted" in parallel with "described" and "outlined." Not only does this construction illogically suggest that Mr. Iqbal adapted to his new country's business regulations during the meeting itself, but it also removes the modifier from the verb "experienced," resulting in a sentence that no longer provides a context for the problems that Mr. Iqbal experienced. In addition, the passive form "had been taken," while not grammatically incorrect, fails to convey that Mr. Iqbal himself took the actions described.

(C) This sentence places "in outlining" in parallel with "in adapting" -- illogically suggesting that Mr. Iqbal experienced significant problems not just in adapting to the new regulations, but also in talking about his resultant actions.

(D) This sentence places "outlining" in parallel with "adapting." As a result, the second item reads: "Mr. Iqbal described the most significant problems he experienced while outlining several actions…" This meaning is illogical. Mr. Iqbal outlined certain actions he had taken; he did not discuss problems he encountered while in the act of outlining his actions. Moreover, the past participle "taken," while not grammatically incorrect, fails to convey that Mr. Iqbal himself took the actions described.

(E) "With which" is unidiomatic: people take actions (they don't "take with" actions); the correct idiom is actions (that) he had taken.

PhantomAY · Answer

the original sentence indicates "experience" and "take" occurs before "describe" and "outline", which I didn't find anything wrong

B) ", adapted to the business regulations" illogically modifies "Mr. Iqbal described the most significant problems"; and the passive from "had been taken" is unnecessary (though not break parallel rules)
C) changed "outline" to be parallel with "adapt", while it should be parallel with "describe".  Although I'm not sure about whether "take in doing..." is idiomatic, appreciate if anyone can shed some light on it 
D) while indicates contemporary action which is not quite the same with "experience in doing something"; also "outline" is illogically parallel with "adapt"
E) "with which..." is nonessential modifier (can be omitted without changing uniqueness), while "that..." is essential. In this case we don't have other info defining "actions" so the modifier should be essential (which cannot be omitted)

navderm · Answer

I have a question here.
Is "in adapting to his new country's ..." idiomatic? 
Should it not be "while adapting"?

navderm · Answer

I have a question here.
Is "in adapting to his new country's ..." idiomatic?
Should it not be "while adapting"?

svasan05 · Answer

Hi

There is a subtle difference in meaning between the two usages.

"in adapting..." refers to the  process  of adapting. The sentence talks about the difficulties Mr Iqbal had experienced  during or as a result of this process . It may at times include time periods close to but not exactly during the period of adapting.

"while adapting...", on the other hand, specifically talks about the time period of adapting.

Both references are idiomatically sound.

Hope this helps.

Sneha2021 · Answer

Is it correct to use past perfect twice to describe the sequence of events in A?

At last month's meeting Mr. Iqbal, the chair of a business association for immigrants, described the most significant problems he had experienced in adapting to his new country's business regulations and outlined several actions that he had taken to deal with those problems.

I rejected A because 1st event (described the most significant problems he had experienced in adapting to his new country's business regulations) should be past perfect and 2nd event should be simple past (outlined several actions that he had taken to deal with those problems.)

Expert please help. 
@e-gmat
 EMPOWERgmatRichC

MBAB123 · Answer

Sneha2021 , There are 2 things that he did at the meeting, both of which make sense in simple past
1. Described the most significant....
2. Outlined several actions....

There are 2 things in perfect past - 
1. Had experienced (Occurred before the 1st event above)
2. Had taken (Occurred before the 2nd event above).

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi Sneha2021,

In addition to the Verb tense issue in this SC, we also have to deal with a Parallelism issue.

When dealing with "two past events", whichever event is FURTHER in the past needs to include the word "had" (you seem to know that this is referred to as "past perfect", but you don't need to know what it's named to notice when it applies). The inclusion of the word "and" means that we have to introduce both ideas in parallel format (so the phrases "had experienced" and "had taken" account for that parallelism).
 
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

akt715 · Answer

Is past participle is required here ??? if we use the simple past tense , I guess the sentence would still be grammatically correct??

VerbalBot · Answer

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At last month's meeting Mr. Iqbal, the chair of a business association

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At last month's meeting Mr. Iqbal, the chair of a business association

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