OG12 sc-50,70,73时态问题

50. according to some analysts, the gains in the stock market reflect growing confidence that the economy will avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year and instead come in for a "soft landing", followed by a gradual increase in business activity.
正确选项A. that the economy will avoid the recession that many had feared earlier in the year and instead come

想请问，the gains...reflect...是一般现在时，earlier in the year表示过去，为什么答案用had feared是对的？

70.His studies of ice-polished rocks in his Alpine homeland, far outside the range of present day glaciers, led Louis Agassiz in 1837 to propose the concept of an age
in which great ice sheets had existed in now currently temperated areas.
正确选项B. in which great ice sheets existed in what are now temperate areas.

His studies...led LA to....是一般过去时，但是对于LA propose concept之前的age,为什么使用一般过去时而不是过去完成时？

73. Combining enormous physical strength with higher intelligence, the Neanderthals appear as equipped for facing any obstacle the environment could put in their path, but their relatively sudden disappearance during the Paleolithic era indicates that an inability to adapt to some environmental change led to their extinction.
正确选项B. appear to have been equipped to face any obstacle the environment could put in their path,

既然neanderthals已经消失（过去时），他们貌似拥有良好装配appear这个词为什么用一般现在时？

谢谢请帮忙解答 *^^*

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iwvers发表于 2010-1-28 06:56 | 只看该作者

Discussion from beatthegmat forum:
70:
"The underlined part is a modifier of "AGE", the underlined part is describing the age, and it has nothing to do with the Louis Agassiz proposal.
Had must have been used in case
1) "Louis Agassiz" did any 2 things in the past...or some thing which affected his "Proposal of age".
2) The modifier of age stated 2 things happend in past.
But here the underlined part is just an add on information added by "which", stating only 1 past event about the age.
If the sentence was "...an age in which great ice sheets had existed before they melted due to temperate climates", then you could use the past perfect. "

73:
by default, "appear" is in the present tense, since we're talking about the way these things appear to present-day observers.

if there were a context that would place "appear" in the past, then you could use the past tense. for instance: to nineteenth-century observers, they appeared to have been equipped...
but, absent such a context, you should go with the present, for simplicity (the default assumption is that this "appears" to be the case to present observers).

in this case, you've also got parallelism between "appear" and "indicates", two descriptions that both describe observations made in the present.
since "indicates" is not underlined, that determines the tense context. so your other observation, which is made at the same time, should be parallel to it.

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