Nicknamed the Napoleon of the dinosaur kingdom, N. Hoglundi seemed as

Question

Nicknamed the Napoleon of the dinosaur kingdom, N. Hoglundi  seemed as armed with a smaller body to adapt to their Cretaceous Arctic environment that  experienced seasonal temperature extremes and variations in available food sources.

a. seemed as armed with a smaller body to adapt to their Cretaceous Arctic environment that
b. seemed to have been armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment that had
c. seems as armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment that
d. seems to have been armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment that
e. seems to be armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment that had

could someone explain why "seemed" is incorrect here? and if seems as is always wrong on GMAT?

Avysar · Accepted Answer

The sentence is talking about a specific animal species...so the subject is singular and hence 'their'is wrong pronoun. A is out.
B and E say environment that had experienced...the sentence is talking about an environment that experienced extremes...the past perfect is incorrect 
C has ' seems as' which is incorrect idiom
The sentence is talking about a fact of the past...so 'seems to have been...' is perfect.
Hence D

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suchita2409 · Answer

The sentence should use seems to show that the adaptation of body is still in the dinosaur kingdom.
But I didn't get why usage of "to have been" is neccesary

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tetraneha · Answer

Can someone explain why seems is preferred over seemed?

Avysar · Answer

'Seems' because the sentence is talking about a fact.....not just something that happened in the past...
For example, we will say ' the dinausar seems to have been a huge animal" we won't say ' it seemed to have been..." because it's a fact but of the past

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GMAT0010 · Answer

GMATNinja , Please help: I'm confused. 1. What does this sentence mean? Does this mean that one dino apparantly had a small body that helped it survive the environmental conditions? 2. Why is B wrong?

Avysar · Answer

'Seemed to have been' implies it is no longer true...but the sentence is talking about a fact of the past. So 'seems to have been' is the right construction...

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catinabox · Answer

a.   seemed as   armed with a smaller body to adapt to   their   Cretaceous Arctic environment   that  
Seemed as... requires a comparison using as. So use of 'that' is incorrect. Although using the correct idiom would still not make this sentence correct, as the comparison would still be illogical. 
Use of 'their' to refer back to a singular subject is also incorrect.

b.   seemed   to have been armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment that  had 
Use of seemed is incorrect. The dinosaur in question seems (right now in the present) to have been... 
No reason to use past perfect either.

c.   seems as   armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment   that  
Same issue as with A.

d. seems to have been armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment that
  Correct.

e.   seems to be   armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment that   had  
While the use of had is incorrect, I'd also argue that 'seems to be' is also incorrect; the dinosaur in question is no longer around, therefore using the present tense (seems to be) is incorrect.

gmat1393 · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Meaning Analysis

Nicknamed the Napoleon of the dinosaur kingdom,
N Hoglundi seemed as armed with a smaller body to adapt to their Cretaceous Arctic environment
that experienced seasonal temperature extremes and variations in available food sources. 
This sentence talks about N Hoglundi, which is nicknamed the Napoleon of the dinosaur kingdom. It says that it appears that these dinosaurs were armed with a smaller body to adapt to their Cretaceous Arctic environment. This environment experienced temperature extremes seasonally and variations in the food sources that were available.

Error Analysis

1) The plural pronoun “their” does not agree in number with the singular noun “N Hoglundi”.

2) The simple past tense “seemed” is incorrectly used to present a universal truth. Note that even though the dinosaurs existed in the past, this statement is made in the present context to show that the author is trying to draw a conclusion about the dinosaurs. Simple present tense verb “seems” is the correct tense. This is so because the sentence expresses some information about the dinosaurs that is true at the current time: i.e., from our present perspective, the dinosaurs appear a certain way.

3) There is an idiom error in this sentence since “seem” should be followed by “to”, not “as”. Furthermore, the phrase “to have been armed” should be used to convey that the dinosaurs were armed in the past.

Answer Choices

A. seemed as armed with a smaller body to adapt to their Cretaceous Arctic environment that

Incorrect: This choice has the errors pointed out in the error analysis.

B. seemed to have been armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment that had

Incorrect: The past perfect tense verb “had experienced” is incorrect in this context since this action did not take place before any related event from the past.

C. seems as armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment that

Incorrect: This choice repeats the idiom error of choice A.

D. seems to have been armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment that

Correct: 
1) This choice rectifies all the errors of the original sentence. The expression “seems to have been armed” correctly presents a conclusion drawn in the present about a past event.

2) Also, this choice replaces the pronoun “their” with the singular pronoun “its”, which agrees with the antecedent “N Hoglundi” in number.

E. seems to be armed with a smaller body to adapt to its Cretaceous Arctic environment that had

Incorrect:

1) The verb phrase “seems to be armed” is set in the present context. It conveys the meaning that the dinosaur is armed with a smaller body. This is incorrect since the dinosaurs don’t exist anymore.

2) The past perfect tense “had experienced” is incorrectly used in this sentence since there is no other related event presented here that happened after this one.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Nicknamed the Napoleon of the dinosaur kingdom, N. Hoglundi seemed as

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Nicknamed the Napoleon of the dinosaur kingdom, N. Hoglundi seemed as

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