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Source: Official Guide for the GMAT 13th Ed. Sentence Correction; #42 Official Guide for the GMAT 2015 14th Ed. Sentence Correction; #42

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To develop more accurate population forecasts, demographers

To develop more accurate population forecasts, demographers have to know a great deal more than now about the social and economic determinants of fertility.

1 Explanation

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Gravatar Mike McGarry, Magoosh Tutor

May 22, 2013 • Comment

Rahul Sharma

Hi mike, thank you for the explanation. I would like to know the explanation for one more ambiguity in my mind that's about the tense"would have to know". According to your conditional video in the magoosh tutorials " would have to knw" comes under second conditional which is not the case here. Instead why is "will have to know" not correct?

Mar 24, 2018 • Reply

David Recine

Great question, Rahul. The answer is that this sentence really is a second conditional sentence, in terms of meaning. "To develop" at the beginning of the sentence is short for "IN ORDER to develop," which could also be expressed as "IF THEY WERE to develop." In other words, this sentence is proposing a second conditional situation-- an unreal situation where demographers would be able to develop more accurate population forecasts, conditional on demographers gaining new knowledge that they don't have right now.

Mar 24, 2018 • Reply

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Section 9.6 Sentence Correction

Section 9.6 Sentence Correction

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