If NASA's Cassini mission successfully completes its next phase – orbi

Question

If NASA's Cassini mission successfully completes its next phase – orbiting Saturn many times over a several-year period – its stunning photos of and data concerning Saturn  have been and will continue to enthrall  astronomers throughout the world.

A. have been and will continue to enthrall

B. have and will continue to enthrall

C. will continue to enthrall, as they already did,

D. will continue to enthrall, as they have already,

E. will continue to enthrall

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear avohden , I'm happy to help. :-)

This is a very subtle question about redundancy. See: https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/920-avoid-redundancy Think about the phrase " will continue to enthrall " --- according to just this phrase, when does the "enthralling" happen? If something is continuing, it already must be happening --- it must have started in the past, and have been in continuous operation from that start through the present. By saying, it " will continue ", we are saying this continuous activity, from the start in the past to the present without break, will also proceed without break into the future. All of this is contained in the idea of " will continue ". The phrase " will continue to enthrall " directly implies that the mission already " had been enthralling " these people. Thus, adding explicitly the idea of past action, the fact that the mission " had been enthralling ", is redundant, because it's already implied in the " will continue " verb. The only answer that totally eliminates the redundancy is (E) . Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

avohden · Answer

Official Explanation

Answer E Note that this sentence is effectively an "if/then" statement with the "then" implied. In an "if/then" statement, if the "if" part is in the simple future tense, then the "then" part must also be in the simple future tense. That is the case here. So look for an answer choice that uses the future tense. The only answer choice that satisfies this requirement is (E).

Also note that, in (A) and (B), the auxiliary verbs "have been" and "have" cannot properly be completed by "enthrall" which appears later; "have been" would require "enthralling", while "have" would require "enthralled". Choices (C) and (D) are wordy because they add unnecessary and awkward phrases.

Hope it helps. :lol:

aaba · Answer

I subscribe daily Kaplan question, and this question belongs to Kaplan.
I thought E change the meaning but it turns out that C and D are wordy.

daagh · Answer

When we 'continue,' we extend what was, has been, or have been already. Therefore, to mention both in the same clause is plain redundant. A, B, C, and D all suffer this malady. E is the answer

Helium · Answer

This sentence presents an if/then situation. The if part is a hypothetical situation in the future. Therefore, the then part must be a future result. However, the underlined portion uses "have been," inexplicably shifting to the present perfect tense.

(A) and (B) begin with the present perfect tense verb "have," while (C), (D), and (E) use the future tense verb "will."

There is no reason to refer to the past. Everything here is predicting the future (If the mission is successful, people will be enthralled). That eliminates (A) and (B).

The remaining choices all use the future tense, but (C) and (D) unnecessarily add an extra phrase. If it's said that something "will continue," it's already implicit that this action has happened before. (After all, how can something continue if it's never happened?) So, there's no need to add a past ("already did") or present perfect ("have already") phrase to this prediction. That eliminates (C) and (D).

That leaves (E) as the correct answer. (E) creates a sentence that deals entirely with possible future actions.

Posted from my mobile device

jaisonsunny77 · Answer

If NASA's Cassini mission successfully completes its next phase – orbiting Saturn many times over a several-year period – its stunning photos of and data concerning Saturn   have been and will continue to enthrall   astronomers throughout the world.

If we take a closer look at the prompt above, we get to realize that the main "Nasa's mission" event is an event that is set to occur in the future. Hence, it makes to sense to refer to this future event with any verb that is used to describe past tense events (verbs such as have/had/did). In (B), (C), and (D) we have different verb forms that introduces a past tense form into the overall structure of the prompt. This (for reasons explained earlier in this paragraph) is wrong. For that reason, we can eliminate (A), (B), (C), and (D)

E. will continue to enthrall -   (E) is therefore your correct answer

If NASA's Cassini mission successfully completes its next phase – orbi

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If NASA's Cassini mission successfully completes its next phase – orbi

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