V06-21

Official Solution:

It is possible that early American women’s rights leaders such as Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were borrowing their ideals from the women who had lived in the contemporary Iroquois Indian nations nearby.

A. were borrowing their ideals from the women who had lived
B. had borrowed their ideals from the women who had been living
C. borrowed their ideals from the women who lived
D. had been borrowing their ideals from the women who lived
E. borrowed their ideals from the women who had been living


This sentence requires the simple past tense verb forms borrowed and lived. The word contemporary makes it clear that the leaders lived at the same time as the Iroquois women. This indicates that both verbs should make use of the same simple past tense.

A. The verb forms were borrowing and had lived display an unnecessary tense shift.

B. The past perfect verb forms created by the word had are not necessary to the sentence.

C. CORRECT. This option correctly displays parallel form between two verbs in simple past tense, borrowed and lived.

D. Had been borrowing is an incorrect verb form.

E. Had been living is an incorrect verb form.


Answer: C
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Hi chetan2u,

Whats wrong with option E.
How can "had been living" is incorrect verb form

Had been + Present Participle = Past perfect continuous tense

Past perfect continuous tense

It is used to describe an action which continued until another past action. (It can absolutely fit in this sentence)
Can you please have a look into this
Whats going wrong.

Please assist.
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IN SC WE WILL KEEP TENSE SIMPLE. IN OPTION C
This option correctly displays parallel form between two verbs in simple past tense, borrowed and lived.

Yeah but how can borrowed and lived be parallel, if two different entities performed those actions? Besides there is no parallelism marker. So yes, choice B is indeed correct, but the explanation for it should be in terms of sequence of events and not parallelism. It's just for the two entities, Leaders and Indian women, the events happened at the same time in the past, and that is why Past Simple is correct in both places.

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

I think when the statement talks about single past moment... past simple is to be preferred rather than had...


In this question as the statement relates to 2 parts (borrow and lend) but at the same point time in past.. Simple past is preferred.


Hope it helps.

Bunuel

The women leaders should have started living before the leaders started borrowing their ideals. It cannot be parallel. So, shouldn't past perfect be used?

Although, one plausible reason could be that women living in that era were a continuous event in itself. And thus, the two events can occur simultaneously.

had been living(perfect continuous) indicates that action is still going on. Whereas the sentence clearly shows contrary to the same. Those ideals were borrowed at the same time those specific women were living there.

Why is option D wrong? "had been borrowing" is a past continuous tense which was in progress when another action happened "lived". egmat

I marked c but was confused between c and d. How do we know these actions occurred at the same time?
Because in case of 2 events in the past, past perfect is also used which is correct in D.
So please explain why d is wrong.

Hi KarishmaB GMATNinja AndrewN
Could you please explain why option D is wrong?

Thank you!

There is no reason to use past perfect in this sentence. We do not have two actions at different times in the past and neither do we have an action before a certain point in the past.
We are just discussing a particular time in the past. At this time in the past, these leaders borrowed ideas from some specific women who lived at that time.
Hence (D) is not correct and (C) is correct.
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Thank you KarishmaB for your response.
How do we know that we are just talking about a particular time in the past?
It is mentioned that the leaders such as X and Y (so there could be other leaders who had been borrowing ideas from these specific women at different times during those women's lifetime)
That's why I thought it might be a continuous event until those women lived.

Posted from my mobile device

Hello, harsh497. It looks as if Karishma beat me to answering the first question, but I see you had a follow-up question.


I think you may be overlooking the word contemporary in the non-underlined part of the sentence. Its presence conveys that Mott and Stanton lived during the same time period as the women of the nearby Iroquois Indian nations. Unless the sentence added a bit to inform us that Mott and Stanton, who may have become aware that their ideals were borrowed, changed something or took a different course of action, there would be no reason to use the past perfect tense to create two distinct timelines. In Sentence Correction, you have to look at what you are given in isolation, without further information either before or after the sentence in question. Take a look at the sentence with answer choice (C) inserted.


As a standalone sentence, and at a barebones level, this sentence expresses that two women may have borrowed ideals from other women who lived nearby. There is nothing to argue against, in terms of the verb tense or meaning. It is not that other sentences could not work, but (C) is a sure bet.

Thank you for thinking to ask me about the question on the whole. Perhaps it makes more sense now.

- Andrew
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Thank you so much Andrew, this helps!
I just checked the meaning of 'contemporary' and now, it makes perfect sense

Posted from my mobile device

Hi AndrewN , I read your explanation and understood it. However, I had a doubt regarding words such as "contemporary". As a non-native speaker I just wanted to ask if it is a given that one must know the meaning of this word. I wasn't sure and hence, because of lack of understanding of the term "contemporary", didn't choose the correct answer choice.
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Hello, sam12rawat. Yes, I would say that the sentence hinges on the word contemporary. If you misinterpreted it as a synonym for ancient, for example, as in ancient Iroquois Indian nations, then you might understandably select an option with a different verb tense than the simple past.

Take note of the word so that if it pops up again, you will be ready for it. And if you feel ambitious, you can even look up various "time words" on Google and jot down a small list of such cue words.

Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew
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Hi AndrewN,

Thank you for your tips. Will look up synonyms just in case.
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