I came across a multiple-choice question. I can't figure out why the offered answer is correct. Can anybody throw some light on it.thanks!
Land animals are believed to__ sea animals.
A. have been developed from
B. have developed into
C. have developed from
D. develop from
The given answer is C. I am wondering why the answer D is not correct
Thanks again!
The sense is not correct, although grammatically it would be. We are talking about a geo-historical process, thus the past tense is needed.
D would suggest that this happens all the time, that every land animal used to be a sea animal earlier in its life.
Land animals are believed to have developed from sea animals.
Land animals are -> passive voice, which requires
believed -> past participle of "to believe"
to have developed -> past perfect
The rest is immaterial, but it's unlikely that "into" is the correct answer. :)
Past Perfect is used to describe an action in the past that preceedes another action in the past (the belief);
I am not a grammaticist. I can't even spell grammaticist. But I'm reasonably sure that's correct.
Land animals are believed to__ sea animals.
A. have been developed from
B. have developed into
C. have developed from
D. develop from
Land animals are believed to have been deveoped from sea animals. This implies that some other person or thing did the developing.
Land animals are believed to have developed into sea animals Land animals came first; then sea animals developed. This is not factually correct.
Land animals are believed to have developed from sea animals As noted, this is grammatically correct. Scientists believe tht lad animals developed form sea animals, but there is always a chance they are wrong.
Land animals are believed to develop from sea animals It happened in the past and is still happening now.
Land animals developed from sea animals Not one of your choices, but is also correct if yo want ot imply that this is known for certain..
I instantly thought that D was incorrect for the reasons given -more concisely than I could - by Mathilda and Shiglia. Particulary why D wasn't correct.
It is the present perfect tense, not the past perfect.
The present perfect tense describes something from the past which is still current or relevant or has an effect on the present.
The belief originated in the past and is still a current belief.
The auxillary verb has or have and the past participle
The belief originated in the past and is still a current belief.
But that has nothing to do with the present perfect tense here. "Land animals are believed" is in the present tense because we are speaking about current beliefs.
Compare:
Whales are believed to have developed from land animals.
The Gypsies were believed to have migrated from Egypt.
Maggots were believed to be generated spontaneously out of rotten cheese.