<p>The whole question is underlined.</p>
<p>Neither of the boy scouts appreciated the historical significance of their climb to the top of the mountain.</p>
<p>a) Neither of the boy scouts appreciated the historical significance of their climb to the top of the mountain.
b) Neither of the boy scouts had appreciated the historical significance of his climbing to the top of the mountain.
c) Neither boy scout would be appreciating the historical significance of their climb to the top of the mountain.
d) Neither boy scout having climbed the mountain appreciated the historical significance of it.
e) Neither of the boy scouts that climbed the mountain appreciated the significance of it.</p>
<p>E. Is that the answer?</p>
<p>Choice (A) is wrong because “neither” is singular and “their” is plural.</p>
<p>Choice (B) has no errors.</p>
<p>Choice (C) is in the wrong tense because there is no conditional statement to support the “would.”</p>
<p>Choice (D) is wrong because “it” refers to “mountain” and not the logical alternative: their climb. Plus, there is a participial phrase that is not offset by commas.</p>
<p>Choice (E) has the same ambiguous pronoun as does choice (D).</p>
<p>damn silverturtle, your good</p>
<p>Silverturtle seems to be the very explicit members on CC to ever explain the Writing Section.</p>
<p>Allow me to persist to the question, D and E can automatically be eliminated because the “it” at the end indicate an indirect object to which there is no further understanding of what subject the “it” is being replaced. </p>
<p>So you’re left with A B and C.</p>
<p>C sounds very awkward, so it’s out.</p>
<p>Since neither and either usually indicate singularity, we can use “his” or “her” to complete the sentence. B would be the only best one to go with because like Silverturtle said, “their” is “plural.”</p>
<p>I understand your explanations but I thought the past perfect tense can only be used when there is another event in the past, which there isn’t one in this sentence. Can “his climbing” be inferred in the past even though it is a gerund? There are no verbs in the past. Can someone care to explain?</p>
<p>The gerund “climbing” in the phrase “his climbing” acts as a noun, so it has no tense. A present participle, which looks identical, is in the present tense (“I am climbing right now”). It is not being used in that sense. If you refer to it as a gerund, or a noun, it has no tense (“the climbing took place last night,” “the climbing is taking place right now,” “the climbing will take place tomorrow”) and can therefore be used in any context.</p>
<p>So, it is implied that the “climbing” took place in the past because the response to the climbing (neither appreciated it), which happened immediately after the climbing took place, also took place in the past.</p>
<p>So then why is the sentence in past perfect?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sorry, I should’ve elaborated more. I thought you were just just asking about the gerund. </p>
<p>Since the question has a negative (“neither”), the response of appreciating the historical significance of the climbing never took place. The sentence is saying that neither appreciated it, not that both did not appreciate it, even though they mean the same thing.</p>
<p>INCORRECT: She never saw a bear before she moved to Alaska.
CORRECT: She had never seen a bear before she moved to Alaska.</p>
<p>Here, past perfect is referring to the lack of experience, not an action at a specific time.</p>
<p>There does not have to be a specific event like “[before] she moved to Alaska” to signify that time has passed. It is only put in the example for easier apprehension. You do not need two events to be stated just to use the past perfect because it is implied that the negative (lack of experience) lasted for a long time.</p>
<p>“I had not seen him for so long.”</p>
<p>The period of “not seeing him” lasted for a long time</p>
<p>Note: in this context, the verb does not HAVE to be in the past perfect. Usually you don’t appreciate something for a long time (for rational reasons), so “neither had appreciated” is correct. But if the verb is a simple action like “eat,” and a specific setting is indicated, you can say “neither ate at the dinner table.”</p>
<p>Thanks! I understand now.</p>