Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did

[wuziwu]

Hi Ron

Can I rule out choices C,D,E by saying they change the tense of the orginal sentence from present perfect to present sample tense? Also can I use "since" as a indicator for using present perfect tense in a sentence ?

Thanks you

[jahnavi_p]

Ron,

Why is Choice ruled out? Is it because of 'which' (i thought that 'that which' was placed properly) or is it because of the tense (had been).
Could you please elaborate an explanation and explain rules as well to remember for such type of sentences?

Thanks

[428lmy]

Ron,
i have a different view about B

i think "that" is ok. However, we can not describe ''growth'--a rate or whatever--using the adjective "more". it is ok to say the growth has been slowed,etc. but 'the growth has been more ' is somewhat weird.

open to discussion

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron

Can I rule out choices C,D,E by saying they change the tense of the orginal sentence from present perfect to present sample tense? Also can I use "since" as a indicator for using present perfect tense in a sentence ?

Thanks you

As for the second question, YES. If you see the word since, you can trust that the following clause will be in the present perfect tense.

As for the first question -- it's not usually that simple. If you see a split between different tenses, normally one of them will be correct in the other will be wrong; however, you have to use CONTEXT to figure out which is which. you cannot just rely on a default assumption that whatever tense appears in the first choice is automatically correct; many choices will require you to change the tense of the initial version to produce a logical sentence.

[RonPurewal]

Ron,
i have a different view about B

i think "that" is ok. However, we can not describe ''growth'--a rate or whatever--using the adjective "more". it is ok to say the growth has been slowed,etc. but 'the growth has been more ' is somewhat weird.

open to discussion

I believe this is correct. In fact, I think the usage of "more" without a following noun, adjective, or adverb will be highly suspicious in most circumstances.
In other words, if you see something like "X is more than Y", versus alternatives such as "X is higher than Y" or "X is greater than Y", you should in general be able to trust the latter.

[tankobe]

question about A:
can "did" be a form of "grow"?
i know it is not proper to discuss official answer, but when confronted with two seeming "oppsite" official problem, i don't know what to do.

this is a piece of OG quetion.
their wines have been priced to sell, and they are.

the key said 'are' must be replaced by "˜do’, because there is not a 'doing' form of "sell" but just 'to sell' form.in advance, they said are can't be replace by 'have' [need a 'sold'--past participle before].
in A, 'grown' is past participle , how can 'did' refer it?

[RonPurewal]

I've learned one rule on the basis of which I marked off A, but now I'm very confused.

Rule: when "have/has/had" is an aulixiary verb, you do have a choice to repeat or not repeat the past participle, but you cannot change "have/has/had" to "do/does/did"

For example:
John has always eaten more meat than Paul has eaten.(correct)
John has always eaten more meat than Paul has. (correct)
John has always eaten more meat than Paul does. (incorrect)

A says: Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950

If OA is A, then it is voilating this rule.

The only difference I can point out between the rule and the choice A is that the above mentioned rule has 2 different subjects while choice A has only one subject.

Could any instructor clarify on the same?

well, remember -- we have exactly the same body of evidence as you do, namely, the collected works of gmac.
if the official problems allow for this sort of thing, then we must accept it as correct, whether we like it or not.

given the official answer to this problem, it's pretty clear that that sort of switch is acceptable -- and, therefore, that your third example (which you've marked as incorrect) is probably ok, too.

where did you see this rule?

[manish1sinha]

Could anyone please explain what's wrong with (C)?

(C) The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds that which had been for 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

'Had been' seems to point to the time period from beginning of agriculture to 1950 whereas the next time period is from 1990 to present.

Thanks in advance :)

[RonPurewal]

Could anyone please explain what's wrong with (C)?

(C) The growth of the global economy since 1990 exceeds that which had been for 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture

'Had been' seems to point to the time period from beginning of agriculture to 1950 whereas the next time period is from 1990 to present.

Thanks in advance :)

first, you've got a "which" modifier that isn't preceded by a comma, so that's an automatic failure. (note that you can use preposition + which without a comma -- e.g., the box in which you placed your valuables -- but you cannot do so with just plain "which".)

more importantly, "had been" is not parallel to anything in the other half of the sentence; in order to use a parallel structure that contains a form of "to be", you must have another form of "to be" in the other half of the parallel structure.
check out more details here:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/soar-t62473-15.html#280069
(i don't normally cross-post between forums, but that's a very long post that wouldn't make much sense to reproduce here.)

[s.ashwin.rao]

I agree with A but wouldn't it be clearer if it was re-worded as Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the past 10000 years from the beginning of agriculture? Or is this already implied?

[jnelson0612]

I agree with A but wouldn't it be clearer if it was re-worded as Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the past 10000 years from the beginning of agriculture? Or is this already implied?

Since it says "during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950" I think that implies that the beginning of agriculture happened approximately 10,000 years before 1950.

[poonamchiK]

Sorry to dig out an old problem.

I want to understand why A is correct.
why is 'beginning of agriculture' superior to 'when agriculture began'.

How will i make out this difference in exam. Since i thought the latter was more concise and correct. I chose D for my ans.

pls help
Thx

P

[RonPurewal]

I've learned one rule on the basis of which I marked off A, but now I'm very confused.

Rule: when "have/has/had" is an aulixiary verb, you do have a choice to repeat or not repeat the past participle, but you cannot change "have/has/had" to "do/does/did"

For example:
John has always eaten more meat than Paul has eaten.(correct)
John has always eaten more meat than Paul has. (correct)
John has always eaten more meat than Paul does. (incorrect)

A says: Since 1990 the global economy has grown more than it did during the 10,000 years from the beginning of agriculture to 1950

If OA is A, then it is voilating this rule.

The only difference I can point out between the rule and the choice A is that the above mentioned rule has 2 different subjects while choice A has only one subject.

Could any instructor clarify on the same?

read here:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/soar-t62473-15.html#280069

note that this sentence fits the third form given in that post -- "did" is a form of "to do", and "has grown" is a tense of the action verb "grow" (it's called the "present perfect tense", if you like to name these things)

notice that the reverse of this kind of structure would not be permissible; if you had just "has" as the second part of the parallel structure, then that's no longer the present perfect tense of an action verb, and so in that case you would also need a corresponding form of "have" in the first part.

[RonPurewal]

Sorry to dig out an old problem.

I want to understand why A is correct.
why is 'beginning of agriculture' superior to 'when agriculture began'.

How will i make out this difference in exam. Since i thought the latter was more concise and correct. I chose D for my ans.

pls help
Thx

P

if it makes you feel any better, that distinction is not necessary to solve this problem; each of the wrong answers has something else wrong with it as well.

the best way to realize that "when agriculture began", in this case, is an inferior option is to realize that "from X to Y" is a parallel structure.
since "1950" -- the second half of that parallel structure -- is a noun, it's best to form the first half of the parallel structure with another noun ("the beginning").

[chenche8827]

sorry to dig these old problem again.
My question is :

about D,E : exceeds what it has been
exceeds what it did


what means "the thing that" is that correct?
if so,then "it" here is useless ， since the sentence can be rewrited like "exceeds the thing that it has been" . Therefore we can eliminate D E because of the usage of "what"?