Alexander Pope

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Alexander Pope

by mgmt_gmat » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:53 am
In 1713, Alexander Pope began his translation of the Iliad, a work that, taking him seven
years until completion, and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary,
pronounced the greatest translation in any language.


A. his translation of the Iliad, a work that, taking him seven years until completion,
and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced
B. his translation of the Iliad, a work that took him seven years to complete and that
literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced
C. his translation of the Iliad, a work that had taken seven years to complete and that
literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it as
D. translating the Iliad, a work that took seven years until completion and that
literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it as
E. translating the Iliad, a work that had taken seven years to complete and literary
critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it

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by komal » Sat Feb 13, 2010 8:54 pm
mgmt_gmat wrote:In 1713, Alexander Pope began his translation of the Iliad, a work that, taking him seven
years until completion, and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary,
pronounced the greatest translation in any language.


A. his translation of the Iliad, a work that, taking him seven years until completion, and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced - Wrong tense
B. his translation of the Iliad, a work that took him seven years to complete and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced - Correct
C. his translation of the Iliad, a work that had taken seven years to complete and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it as - 'it' is not needed here
D. translating the Iliad, a work that took seven years until completion and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it as - same as C
E. translating the Iliad, a work that had taken seven years to complete and literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it- same as C
Last edited by komal on Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:32 am, edited 2 times in total.

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by money9111 » Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:47 pm
IMO B... because you need "took" over "taking"... also the "it" at the end of many of the sentences I feel is unecessary
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by sarthak » Sun Feb 14, 2010 4:51 am
The sentence says
In 1713, Alexander Pope began his translation
. While the phrase
a work that had taken seven years to complete
suggests making the statement after his work completion. So C and E is out. And in A and D the phrase
until completion
is wrong. So correct choice is B.

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by girish3131 » Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:56 am
very close call b/w B and D


IMO it's D b'coz option B is wordy as it's repeatedly saying his/ him for obvious thing...

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by harshavardhanc » Wed Feb 17, 2010 5:25 am
mgmt_gmat wrote:In 1713, Alexander Pope began his translation of the Iliad, a work that, taking him seven
years until completion, and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary,
pronounced the greatest translation in any language.


A. his translation of the Iliad, a work that, taking him seven years until completion,
and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced
B. his translation of the Iliad, a work that took him seven years to complete and that
literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced
C. his translation of the Iliad, a work that had taken seven years to complete and that
literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it as
D. translating the Iliad, a work that took seven years until completion and that
literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it as
E. translating the Iliad, a work that had taken seven years to complete and literary
critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it

https://www.beatthegmat.com/post92693.html#92693
Regards,
Harsha

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by girish3131 » Wed Feb 17, 2010 5:42 am
@ Harsha

Thanks 4 dis link !

But Stacy launguage is too hard for me 2 digest... :)


Can u explain why D is wrong.... ?


Thanks!

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by nileshdalvi » Wed Feb 17, 2010 5:59 am
Can anyone explain the redundancy in the pronoun "it" at the end of the sentence? Does "and that" not create another clause which needs a reference of the noun used in the previous clause?

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by [email protected] » Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:35 am
Hello Everyone!

This is an incredibly difficult GMAT question, so let's figure out the best way to attack it. To get started, we'll take a quick look over the original question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

In 1713, Alexander Pope began his translation of the Illiad, a work that, taking him seven years until completion, and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced the greatest translation in any language.

A. his translation of the Illiad, a work that, taking him seven years until completion, and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced
B. his translation of the Illiad, a work that took him seven years to complete and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced
C. his translation of the Illiad, a work that had taken seven years to complete and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it is
D. translating the Illiad, a work that took seven years until completion and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it as
E. translating the Illiad, a work that had taken seven years to complete and literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it

After a quick glance over the options, we have a LOT of things we can focus on:

1. "his translation of" vs. "translating"
2. "taking" / "took" / "had taken"
3. "until completion" / "to complete"
4. "pronounced" / "pronounced it is" / "pronounced it as" / "pronounced it"


Whenever we have this many things to focus on, it's best to start with things that are "either A or B" situations because they will likely remove 2-3 options right away.

Let's start with #1 on our list: "his translation of" vs. "translating" because no matter which one we choose, it will eliminate a lot of choices!

While it may seem like both phrases are interchangeable, they do mean slightly different things:

In 1713, Alexander Pope began his translation of the Iliad... = His translation isn't the first one. It also suggests he took a different approach to his translation than others who translated it before.

In 1713, Alexander Pope began translating the Iliad... = His translation may or may not be the first one. It also doesn't clearly show that his translation is any different than others who translated it before.

Since the focus of the sentence is that Samuel Johnson pronounced it the best translation ever done, it makes more sense to also clearly show that Pope's translation was different or unique. Therefore, using the phrase "his translation of" is the better choice here.

We can eliminate options D & E because the word "translating" doesn't provide the same clarity and emphasis as "his translation of."

There you go - 2 options down!

Now, let's take a look at #2 on the list: taking / took / had taken.

A. his translation of the Illiad, a work that, taking him seven years until completion, and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced

This option is INCORRECT because changing the phrase into an -ing modifier doesn't really work here. First off, it's not necessary - you can just say "took" and it's much easier to understand. Second, it's not clear what parts of this mess of modifiers actually refers back to the Iliad. The only thing we have to go off of is "a work that." A work that what??? When using modifiers, it's best to include all the information you want to attach to the antecedent (the Iliad) directly before or after it. In this case, it's just too confusing.

B. his translation of the Illiad, a work that took him seven years to complete and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced

This is CORRECT! The past tense "took" makes sense here because we're talking about past tense events that happened at the same time. It's also clear what information is modifying the Iliad, and it's not confusing at all for readers to follow.

C. his translation of the Illiad, a work that had taken seven years to complete and that literary critic Samuel Johnson, Pope's contemporary, pronounced it is

This is INCORRECT because it uses the past perfect "had taken" to say that Pope translated the Iliad in seven years BEFORE he began translating it. Doesn't really make sense, does it? How did he finish the translation before he began? This is the wrong verb tense to use here, so let's toss it out. There is also an issue with the phrase "pronounced it is" because the pronoun "it" is vague - is "it" referring to the Iliad or the translation? I know you could INFER that it's the Iliad, but it's not 100% clear - and if a pronoun is not 100% clear on the GMAT, it's likely wrong.

There you have it - option B is the correct choice! It's clear, to the point, and uses the right verb tenses throughout!


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