Sentence Correction

Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, knew how to use a good story to generate good will.
(A) Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, knew
(B) Discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, Lincoln knew
(C) Lincoln, discovering the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned in young manhood before him, knew
(D) In young manhood Lincoln discovered the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him;
(E) Lincoln, discovered in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him, knew

Kindly post your answer with an explanation...OA after some discussion

E because of the tenses?

singhag wrote:Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, knew how to use a good story to generate good will.
(A) Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, knew
(B) Discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, Lincoln knew
(C) Lincoln, discovering the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned in young manhood before him, knew
(D) In young manhood Lincoln discovered the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him;
(E) Lincoln, discovered in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him, knew

Kindly post your answer with an explanation...OA after some discussion

a) has learned is wrng tense
b) same as a
c)meaning altered
d) correct
e) discovered modifies lincoln but lincoln was not discovered
meaning altered

IMO D

There's a close call between D & E.

D:
A semicolon separates equivalent elements.
If it were a colon, this sentence would be OK.

E:
Changes the meaning,

I'll go with D because no other option looks good.


IMO D

answer E, has right tenses.

In D the two parts are making sense alone but when read together they sound awkward.

OA D

How can be D....there is a semi colon after him....hence there should have been a main clause after the semi colon
option C seems to be right...

Hey singhag, why is the answer D and not E ?

Mom4MBA wrote:Hey singhag, why is the answer D and not E ?

Hey Mom4MBA,
Look carefully at the sentence-"E".

Lincoln, discovered in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him, knew

The bold-faced part implies that Lincoln was discovered in young manhood.
This is incorrect usage since Lincoln had discovered something.
He wasn't himself discovered by someone.

I hoope you get the point.

I agree that the D seems to be the most optimal, but the semi colon makes it odd. I think there is a typo in the sentence.

In E, it says Lincoln, discovered in Young Manhood. Changes the meaning.

C definitely changes the meaning because it says yankee peddler learned in Young manhood instead of Lincoln

Rajat Khandelwal wrote:How can be D....there is a semi colon after him....hence there should have been a main clause after the semi colon
option C seems to be right...

use of semicolon requires separation of two independent clause ( which can stand alone)
in D bth can stand alone
In young manhood Lincoln discovered the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him is itself a complete s/c with lincoln as sub and discovered as verb of sub

how to use a good story to generate good will.
is complete with good story sub and use as its verb

so IMO its clearly correct

The semicolon is also a simple piece of punctuation, like comma. It is used to connect two independent clauses together into one sentence, and you can also use it as a super-comma.
1. To Connect Two Independent Clauses
Example: This could be a complete sentence; this could be another one.
If you put a comma where that semicolon is, you will have committed a "comma splice," which is a very nasty grammar error indeed. Sometimes, the second clause doesn't really look like a complete sentence.

2.To Serve as a Super-comma
When you have a series of three or more items that normally would be separated by commas except that each individual item already has a comma in it, you use the semicolon between items.
Example: We visited Pago Pago, Western Samoa; Curitiba, Brazil; and St. George, Utah.
Example: The trio's birthdays are November 10, 1946; December 7, 1947; and October 31, 1950.

Hope it is helpful...

Thanks Harsh and Shashank.........got it

thephoenix wrote:

Rajat Khandelwal wrote:How can be D....there is a semi colon after him....hence there should have been a main clause after the semi colon
option C seems to be right...

use of semicolon requires separation of two independent clause ( which can stand alone)
in D bth can stand alone
In young manhood Lincoln discovered the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him is itself a complete s/c with lincoln as sub and discovered as verb of sub

how to use a good story to generate good will.
is complete with good story sub and use as its verb

so IMO its clearly correct

@thephoenix - How can you say that 'use' is used as a verb here? Here 'to + use' acts as an infinitive and hence cannot be used as a verb.