Many Analysts have Recently Predicted that Democratic Institutions will Develop in China

Question: Many analysts have recently predicted that democratic institutions will develop in China, as the growth of democracy has generally followed industrial development in other countries throughout the 20th century.

A) has generally followed industrial development
B) generally followed industrial development
C) had generally followed industrial development
D) generally follows industrial development
E) followed general industrial development

“Many analysts have recently predicted that democratic institutions will develop in China”- this is a GMAT sentence correction question. This particular GMAT sentence correction topic has been taken from the book ‘The Official Guide of GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition, 2009’. This question checks Tenses, Construction, and Meaning. GMAT Sentence Correction questions comprise 11-16 questions to be completed within 65 minutes. Each Sentence Correction question contains a sentence with an underlined portion that includes 0-2 errors.

Answer: B

Explanation: The following concepts are tested here:

1. Tenses
2. Construction
3. Meaning

Option A: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because the use of “has generally followed” is wrong and changes the meaning of the sentence. We are talking about an event in the past with the phrase “throughout the 20th century”. So, using the present perfect tense is not correct. Option A is incorrect.

Option B: Correct
This option is correct because it correctly uses the simple past tense “generally followed” to refer to the pattern of democracy following industrial development in the 20th century. Also, the option is free from awkwardness and redundancy. So, Option B is correct.

Option C: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it uses past perfect construction “had generally followed” which is incorrect. Past perfect tense requires another event in the later past, using the simple past tense. In this sentence, there is no such later event. So, Option C is incorrect.

Option D: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it uses simple present tense “generally follows” to refer to an event that occurred “throughout the 20th century”. The event is in the past and we can not use simple present tense to refer to it. So, Option D is incorrect.

Option E: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because the use of “general” alters the meaning of the sentence. “General” is used to modify “industrial development” as opposed to being used to refer to the pattern of democracy following industrial development. Also, the meaning of “general” here is not clear. So, Option E is incorrect.

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