<p>I'm 2 MC questions away from getting a 790 (not 800, but I needed an enticing title :P, sorry if I disappointed anyone lol!) and I have no idea why they're wrong.</p>
<p>[ ] = underlined portion</p>
<ol>
<li>One of the earliest of the ancient Greek writers of love poetry, Sappho [has had such a profound influence on] later lyric poets that she came to be known as "the tenth Muse."</li>
</ol>
<p>A. has had such a profound influence on
B. has had so profound an influence on
C. has so profoundly influenced
D. so profoundly influenced
E. profoundly influenced</p>
<ol>
<li>[By painting them] this afternoon, the walls would be completely dry by tomorrow evening.</li>
</ol>
<p>A. By painting them
B. If they would have been painted
C. Were they to be painted
D. After painting them
E. They would be painted</p>
<p>Scroll down for answers because some of you are very tempted to peek.</p>
<p>Answers: 1. D 2. C</p>
<p>I'm really confused about the right answers.. Can anyone explain them to me? Thank you very much.</p>
<ol>
<li>You need ‘so,’ or ‘such,’ to provide emphasis on the verb influence. This eliminates (E). No need for past perfect (had), so eliminate (A), and (B). We are left with (C)/(D).</li>
</ol>
<p>(D) seems better than (C) to me, sorry but I can’t explain it…</p>
<ol>
<li>I have no clue.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>I think the ‘would’ and ‘tomorrow’ shows that the statement is talking about the future, so you use ‘after’</li>
</ol>
<p>Where did you get these questions?</p>
<ol>
<li>One of the earliest of the ancient Greek writers of love poetry, Sappho [has had such a profound influence on] later lyric poets that she came to be known as “the tenth Muse.”</li>
</ol>
<p>A. has had such a profound influence on
B. has had so profound an influence on
C. has so profoundly influenced
D. so profoundly influenced
E. profoundly influenced</p>
<p>Adding to what GreedIsGood said… between D and C
If you use C
…has so profoundly influenced…that she has come to be known
Which is not an option. Leaving D as your answer.</p>
<ol>
<li>[By painting them] this afternoon, the walls would be completely dry by tomorrow evening.</li>
</ol>
<p>A. By painting them
B. If they would have been painted
C. Were they to be painted
D. After painting them
E. They would be painted</p>
<p>Though I can talk about mis-modifiers here, I’ll give you an easy way to get around these kind of sentence.
^ The sentence that I just wrote… Try putting the part which is before the comma, at the end of the sentence.
The sentence would read,
I’ll give you an easy way to get around these kind of sentence, though I can talk about mismodifiers here. </p>
<p>This a useful to find the answer to such sentences. Try to put the part before the comma, at the end of sentence.
The walls would be completely dry by tomorrow evening, were they to be painted this afternoon.
Do this for all other options, and you’ll find how ludicrous they sound.</p>
<p>Since the first’s already been answered,
2) It says (____) the walls “would be” completely dry by tomorrow evening.
This indicates,the speculative nature of the sentence.IF something were to happen,THEN something else would happen.
Hence,A,D,E are out.
Out of B,C-look for the one that ‘sounds’ better to your inner ear.In (B),the error is parallelism.“If they would HAVE BEEN painted”…To match this,you would want-“the walls would HAVE been completely dry”
And this doesnt sound right either.
Hence,the only chice left is (C)</p>
<p>Someone please explain the has/had nature of number one and why the correct answer is lacking has/had</p>
<p>Don’t quote me on this, but I think you should only use has/had when you’re using normal past tense as well. You don’t say “the universe has appeared several billion years ago”, rather just “the universe appeared…”</p>
<p>I do not guarantee the accuracy of my response. Perhaps a senior member can clear this up.</p>
<p>First question:</p>
<p>The idiom is so…that. Eliminate all except C and D. You have a choice between the present perfect and the past tense. (has/have + participle forms the present perfect). They are talking about some ancient Greek dude that did something way in the past, so its past tense. The answer is D. You would use present perfect for things that happened in the past at an unspecified time, but this is ancient Greek - way back.</p>
<p>Second question:
The use of “would” signals the conditional mood, in which we are talking about a hypothetical situation. So we need something hypothetical, which is in either choice B or C. (B) uses the present perfect again (have…painted) but it talks about something that would have happened the previous afternoon. So C is the answer. Also, B sounds wordy comparing to C.</p>
<p>I know this from studying Spanish. So yeah, there may be discrepancy. </p>
<p>Side note: Its remarkable you’re so close to a 790. I barely come close.</p>
<p>Thank you for all your responses! I kind of understand with the parallels and stuff, but I don’t see why B doesn’t work for number two. Let’s say it’s 9 PM tonight and you’re saying this, then wouldn’t it be okay? Granted it’s wordy but C just doesn’t sound right to me.</p>
<p>For number one, is it because there’s the phrase “she came to be known as” that I should drop has/had? Parallels should be easy… I don’t know why I didn’t see this coming, lol.</p>
<p>itsmylife99: If you use your strategy for number two, both B and C sound correct to me :P. However, your strategy is VERY intriguing; I’ll definitely make good use of it on test day!</p>
<p>anthonsmit: These questions were from the January 2010 SAT.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>why do we need a has…has? I’m always bad with these. Can someone care to explain?</p>
<p>“would have” and “if” cannot be used in the same clause as they are here.It is grammatically incorrect.
For eg.
“I would have stopped by your house if I would have known you were home” is incorrect because ‘if’ and ‘would have’ are in the same clause.
However,
“I would have stopped by your house if I had known you were home”
is absolutely acceptable.
I hope this clears up your confusion R3d3mtiOn :)</p>
<p>@obliviOn-That is because of error in parallelism if you do not go that way(has…has).</p>
<p>Thx perfectpixie. I guess it’s one of those elusive grammar rules I wasn’t aware of.</p>
<p>Hi redemption. I will give you simple rules that the posters in this thread have not.</p>
<p>Sappho [has had such a profound influence on] later lyric poets that
Notice the that? It should tell you that “so” is necessary. Why? Because it’s an idiomatic phrase. Memorize it: So…that </p>
<p>[By painting them] this afternoon, the walls would be</p>
<p>The would, the future unreal tense, requires the subjunctive mood.<br>
Subjunctive mood: If _____ were to __________</p>
<p>When put together:
If ______ were to _<strong><em>, then </em></strong> would _________</p>
<p>The correct answer choice eliminates the word “if” in the answer… kind of tricky… well it IS the last question of the improving sentences set afterall</p>
<p>I kind of understand the 2nd one now. I already knew why the 1st one was wrong, but isn’t there a such…that usage in English?</p>
<p>Such…that is also another expression</p>