GMAT Club Experimental SC 2-6

Question

Hello everyone. Another Round of questions - this time from a different test writer. (In case you missed postings ealier this week - we are evaluating several test writers to create a set of GMAT Club's verbal tests and need your help!
Similar feedback request as before - how close is the question to the real GMAT? And, what recommendation for improvement would you give to the test writer? Please Vote.

Neanderthals  had lived in Europe and western Asia from 400,000 to some 30,000 years ago and were thus contemporary with modern  Homo Sapiens , who  originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
A. had lived in Europe and western Asia from 400,000 to some 30,000 years ago and were thus contemporary with modern Homo sapiens, who
B. had lived in Europe and western Asia from 400,000 to some 30,000 years ago and were thus contemporary to modern Homo sapiens that 
C. had lived in Europe and western Asia from 400,000 to some 30,000 years ago and were thus contemporary to modern Homo sapiens, which
D. lived in Europe and western Asia from 400,000 to some 30,000 years ago and were thus contemporary to modern Homo sapiens, who
E. lived in Europe and western Asia from 400,000 to some 30,000 years ago and were contemporary with modern Homo sapiens, who

ritula · Answer

I will chose E for correct idiom :contemporary with
also no need for past participle

asavari · Answer

A is correct, past perfect followed by simple past.

nitya34 · Answer

Its A comtemporary with https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v1 ... 622b0.html 5/5

sanjay_gmat · Answer

Suresh, why do we need a perfect tense here?

A,B and C use "had" which is not needed.
D and E use the correct tense, but both have problems. D uses "contemporary to" instead of "contemporary with". E is missing "thus", which is followed by conclusion (that the Neanderthals are contemporary with modern Homo Sapiens).

Legend · Answer

My answer is A.

The past perfect is required + 'with' is the preposition.

4/5

seofah · Answer

A.
1. I am not sure that we need past perfect, though
2. we need "thus" to show the intended relationship between the 2 sentence parts.
Good question.

bb · Answer

Here are the OA and Explanation - how do you feel about the difficulty of this question? On a level between 600 and 800?

Below 600
600-650
650-700
700-750
750+
 
 OA: D

Since both events in the sentence occurred simultaneously, “had” is not desired in A, B and C. “Homo sapiens” in B, and C cannot be referred by “that and/or which”. The correct idiom is “contemporary to” as in B, C, D and E not “contemporary with” as in A. D, the best answer, is correct in terms of idiom and tense.

icandy · Answer

I chose D because I know that contemporary with is wrong.

Two individuals/groups are always contemporary to each other.

For example, We will tell our children some time that Roger Federer was a contemporary to Rafael Nadal.

How ever, the grey area of this Q is again past perfect.

IIRC, Past Perfect should be used when two events happened in the past. Does this explicitly mean that one event started, it completed and then the second event happened after the first event and there is no overlap of events ( happening together ) what so ever?? Can some one shed more light on this?

If the overlap of events makes it a No No for Past Perfect, the other Q on Sudan also makes sense. Providing happened until expulsion happened.

patedhav · Answer

I am confused between A and E. Whether we should use past perfect or simple past? (if time and sequence mentioned clearly).

icandy · Answer

bb,

can we get an answer from the writer?

htskumar · Answer

700+. This one uses idiom and the final answer can be completely filtered based on the idiom usage. Since GMAC is trying to phase out idiom based questions, it's better if the answer choices can be structured to apply multiple rules (other than just the idiom) to arrive at the correct answer.

donkadsw · Answer

Unnecessary use of perfect tense in A, B, C. No subsequent past event 
E - Simply connects two clauses by 'and', suggesting they are independent of each other while the original sentence clearly implies a connection with 'thus'
Hence, D

IMO, difficulty level 600-700

tuanquang269 · Answer

This sentence belongs to 700+ group

I do not remember too much about "contemporary to", I confuse between D and E. Chosen D based on my sense. There are another reason that make E wrong, aren't there?

rajeevrks27 · Answer

Though confused between D n E, i chose D becauce contemporary to sounds ok and also because of the use of thus....
700 level Qn..

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