The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are

Question

The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are now known  to have had brains  fully as large as our own.

(A) to have had brains 
(B) as having brains that are 
(C) to have brains that were 
(D) that their brains were 
(E) that they had brains that were

I googled this question and found out that the reason why C wasn't the answer was that "were" was inconsistent with other verb tense. According to what I found, "were" should be "are", which is present tense.

So if "were" were "are", could C be the answer?

Also, I am confused why we need present perfect tense instead of simple present tense ?( I am talking about A)

Skywalker18 · Accepted Answer

The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are now known  to have had brains  fully as large as our own. 
(A) to have had brains - Correct
(B) as having brains that are - tense issue 'are'; Here, the usage of having implies that the Neanderthals are HAVING brains NOW. 
(C) to have brains that were - the Neanderthals ARE NOW KNOWN (in the present) TO HAVE brains (also in the present). 
Since the Neanderthals no longer exist, this meaning is nonsensical. 
(D) that their brains were - incorrect structure The Neanderthals are now known that...
(E) that they had brains that were - same as D

Mary knows that the house is blue. 
Here, the that-clause in blue serves as the DIRECT OBJECT of knows. 
WHAT does Mary know? 
She knows THAT THE HOUSE IS BLUE. 
Rule: 
A passive verb -- is + VERBed, are + VERBed, etc. -- cannot take a direct object.

Answer A

In English, we have two infinitive tenses: the present infinitive (to + VERB) and the perfect infinitive (to have + VERBed).

The present infinitive expresses CONTEMPORANEOUS action (an action happening AT THE SAME TIME as the main action): 
John IS proud TO BE president. 
Here, John IS proud (in the present) TO BE president (also in the present).

The perfect infinitive expresses PRIOR action (an action that happened BEFORE the main action): 
John IS proud TO HAVE BEEN president. 
Here, John IS proud (in the present) TO HAVE BEEN president (in the past).

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The perfect infinitive can be used to refer to something in the past.

Dinosaurs are known to walk the Earth. 
Present infinitive. Implies that dinosaurs still walk the Earth.

Dinosaurs are known to have walked the Earth. 
Perfect infinitive. Used here to indicate that Dinosaurs no longer walk the Earth.

Note that we can't simply change the are to were to communicate that dinosaurs no longer walk the Earth, as doing so could be interpreted as implying that the knowing is not current, that is, we no longer know that dinosaurs walk the Earth. Alternatively, the sentence could be talking about the state of knowing at some time in the past (for example, to point out when that fact was first known).

Option D should use it as the subject to delay the that clause instead of providing a completely different subject.

It is known that dinosaurs walked the Earth. 
This sentence is fine.

Dinosaurs are known that they walked the Earth. 
This one is not.

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi hsbinfy, it's slightly more complex than this. The usage here is not  have had , but  to have had . This usage is called  perfect infinitive  and is quite sophisticated in its application.

The perfect infinitive indicates that its action happened  before  the action of the main verb of the clause. Perfect infinitives can act as  present perfect ,  past perfect , or  simple past  tense. In this case, the perfect infinitive is acting as  simple past  (because clearly, the brains of Neanderthals existed in the  past ).

Not really; the presence of  were  in option C continues to suggest that the sentence is talking about something in the  past . So, Neanderthals cannot  have  brains ( simple present ) that  were  ( simple past ) as large as our own.

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  Perfect Infinitive , its application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id, I can mail the corresponding section.

GMATD11 · Answer

I also marked C.

The reason for had in A --it is not past perfect tense because we don't have verb with it(had + past participle=Past perfect) but Past participle modifying brain

Pls comment if m wrong...

FatRiverPuff · Answer

It's A. It can't be C because neanderthals are dead, as are their brains.

hsbinfy · Answer

i am happy to help here

For most of you the contender s would be A and C

A is right here

look at the non-underlined portion carefully:

once considered dull-witted brutes  this suggests that Neanderthals existed .they don't now

So  have had  would be correct here to show that the effect is still true now,but they are not existing.

C would have been correct of this modifier was not there > once considered dull-witted brutes

So this question is just about looking at non-underlined portion and marking the correct choice.

hope it helps

AmritaSarkar89 · Answer

How can we use have had when we don't have two events happening in the past simultaneously and one is happening after the other I would go with C in this case.

Please explain otherwise.

Abhishek009 · Answer

Thats Human evolution Theory 6e6b19fac6d9957983d3b360973a440a.gif Neanderthals lived prior to Modern Human Beings.. Hope this helps...

deepthit · Answer

this question deals with perfect infinitives.

Perfect infinitive = to + have + participle

This is used when mentioning the event happened before the main verb of the sentence.

COming back to this question, "considered" is the main verb and the underlined part talk about an event that was previously considered.

So "to have had brains" used as is correct. 
Option A

AlexGmat2017 · Answer

Why cannot we use the construction with 'that', e.g. D)?

AR15J · Answer

they are known to help internationally --correct

they are known that they help internationally -- awkward

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thangvietnam · Answer

there is one hard and fast rule here.
"known that " is appear only if there is a fake subject .

it is knows that they are good.
"it " here is fake subject. if we use real subject we need "to do"
I am known to be excellent at gmat. 
so, E and D are gone

dcummins · Answer

The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are now known  to have had brains  fully as large as our own.

(A) to have had brains 
Have had is in the past.

(B) as having brains that are 
As having is in the present.

(C)  to have  brains that were 
to have implies currency...Neanderthals are known to have.... They can't be known to have anything if they're extinct. They are known to have had SOMETHING, sometime before now.

Also, to quote Mitch Hunt (GMATGuruNY): 
 "A VERBing modifier serves to express an action that is CONCURRENT with the main action. 
B: are now known as having brains 
Here, the usage of having implies that the Neanderthals are HAVING brains NOW. 
Since the Neanderthals no longer exist, this meaning is nonsensical.] "

Known that has similar issues as C in implication. 
(D) that their brains were 
(E) that they had brains that were

thangvietnam · Answer

choice C means that at present , Neanderthals have brains and these brains in the past were as large as our brains. those animal can not have brains now because they died. so, this meaning is wrong.

soumya170293 · Answer

Correct answer is clear cut A .

I know many of you are in doubt about what to choose between A and C .

C has been eliminated on the grounds of Tense Change : The Neanderthals,....are now known to have brains that were....

A literally means : The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are now known to have had brains fully as large as our own :: The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are now known to have got brains fully as large as our own.

one example having ( GMAT abhors to use 'having'

) have had usage : I have had ( means got) an issue with the company manager for the ongoing project , so I am planning to give resignation next week .

lakshya14 · Answer

"To have " simple present? "To" for being infinitive but "have" for being present perfect, but how come its "to have" is simple present?

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi Lakshya, as you've rightly pointed out,  to have  is an  infinitive  ( to  + the  basic form  of the verb).

For the most part, infinitives do not really have a tense of their own. For example:

He wants to have a car .
- The sentence uses the infinitive  to have  and the sentence is in  simple present .

He wanted to have a car .
- The sentence uses the infinitive  to have  and the sentence is in  simple past .

In other words, the presence of the infinitive is  not  impacting the tense of the sentence, in any manner.

p.s. The sentence under consideration does not use a  simple infinitive , but a (variation called)  perfect infinitive .

vasuca10 · Answer

GMATNinja  sir  VeritasKarishma  mam kindly explain

winterschool · Answer

The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are now known to have had brains fully as large as our own.

(A) to have had brains
(B)  as  having brains that are
(C)  to have  brains that were
(D)  that  their brains were
(E)  that  they had brains that were

known to and known as correct idioms, known that wrong idioms

so, D & E out
B out, in this sentence known as uses wrong

between A & C,

C - present tense uses wrong, it should be past form

to have brains that were means - their brains were large in past but not now

so A is answer

KarishmaB · Answer

"to have had" is perfect infinitive which we use when reporting an earlier event in passive voice.

The form of perfect infinitive is "to have + ed form of verb"

e.g. 
Active - They know that A had a big brain.
Passive - A is known to have had a big brain.

Earlier event - A had a big brain. We are reporting it in passive voice so we use "is known to have had"

Active - They believe that the previous documents had errors. 
Passive - The previous documents are believed to have had errors.

Hence (A) is correct.

Try to read high quality literature regularly to develop an ear for these kind of constructs. There is only so much "grammar" that you can work on.

The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are

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