* Salt deposits and moisture

[at1687]

Salt deposits and moisture threaten to destroy the Mohenjo-Daro excavation in Pakistan, the site of an ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valley of the Tigris and Euphrates.

a) that flourished at the same time as the civilizations
b) that had flourished at the same time as had the civilizations
c) that flourished at the same time those had
d) flourishing at the same time as those did
e) flourishing at the same time as those were

I found this question on another forum, which said A was the correct answer without any clear explanation. I thought it should be B because in "same time as ...", the ... should refer to some time. Could I please get a better explanation?

Thanks!

[ghong14]

The main point of the sentence here is that there needs to be comparison. What the sentence is trying to say is that the ancient civilizations (pakistan) flourished at the same time as the civilizations of the Egypt and Euphrates.

Let's look at answer choice A:

ancient civilization that flourished at the same time as the civilizations in the Nile delta and the river valley of the Tigris and Euphrates (flourished - omitted).

The sentence in choice A conveys exactly what we talked about above. Notice the comparison marker AS and the two parts that are compared. Notice the parallel structure with the italicized parts.

b) that had flourished at the same time as had the civilizations

With answer choice B there is a Verb Tense issue here. We are comparing the civilizations in the same time period. Had should only be to show time differences in past events. We are not trying to say that the ancient civilization existed before the Egyptian and Euphrates civilization. Instead we are trying to say they exitsted at the same time. Use the simple past tense flourished.

[RonPurewal]

this is an OG problem; i don't believe i've ever seen it in the GMAT PREP software.

if this problem is actually in the GMAT PREP software, please post a screenshot in the next week or so. otherwise, we'll have to delete this thread; we are not allowed to put OG problems on here.

thank you.