Sentence Correction

Beginning in 1963 with General Motors and lasting until the end of a second stint with General Motors, which he helped successfully guide out of bankruptcy in 2009, Bob Lutz saw his career as one of the automotive industry's true visionaries span nearly fifty years, two continents, four separate automakers, and responsibility for countless industry innovations.

A) Bob Lutz saw his career as one of the automotive industry's true visionaries span nearly fifty years, two continents, four separate automakers, and countless industry innovations.

B) the career of Bob Lutz, one of the automotive industry's true visionaries, has spanned nearly fifty years, two continents, four separate automakers, and countless industry innovations

C) Bob Lutz's career as one of the automotive industry's true visionaries has spanned four separate automakers, two continents, and responsibility for countless industry innovation over nearly fifty years

D) the career of Bob Luts, one of the automotive industry's true visionaries, spanned two continents over nearly fifty years, during which time Lutz was responsible for countless industry innovations at four separate automakers

E) Bob Lutz has seen his career as one of the automotive industry's true visionaries span nearly fifty years, two continents, four separate automakers, and countless industry innovations that he was responsible for

OA: D

Source: VeritasPrep Advanced

The very first thing to eliminate here are answers A and E. You have an introductory clause and you want to ask yourself what is being introduced. In this case, it is the career of Bob, not Bob himself, that lasted until the end of his second stint. The possessive noun in answer C makes it still the career that is the subject. However, C is quickly eliminated because of meaning. It was not his career as an automotive visionary. E offers the same description.


The answer is B.

Hi Jim,

I am not too sure about B - the skeleton of the sentence is: The career of Bob has spanned Fours (unless fourS is a typo) separate automakers and countless industry innovations (the and branch does not sound right)?

On the other hand I think D sounds much better and makes more sense.


any comments?


Thanks!

Jim@StratusPrep wrote:The very first thing to eliminate here are answers A and E. You have an introductory clause and you want to ask yourself what is being introduced. In this case, it is the career of Bob, not Bob himself, that lasted until the end of his second stint. The possessive noun in answer C makes it still the career that is the subject. However, C is quickly eliminated because of meaning. It was not his career as an automotive visionary. E offers the same description.

The answer is B.

The OA is not B. It's D.

It is suggested that the problem in "has spanned" over "countless industries".

Yes, you guys are correct...

As you can see in my answer explanation I never eliminated D, meaning I must have thought it was just not there.

Ha! We all make mistakes.

ice_rush wrote:Hi Jim,

I am not too sure about B - the skeleton of the sentence is: The career of Bob has spanned Fours (unless fourS is a typo) separate automakers and countless industry innovations (the and branch does not sound right)?

Thanks!

Sorry, this is a typo, enclosed a screenshot to the initial post.

Another error in B is the following contradiction:
LASTING UNTIL THE END OF A SECOND STINT with General Motors, the career of Bob Lutz HAS SPANNED NEARLY FIFTY YEARS.
Lasting until the end of a second stint implies that -- at some point IN THE PAST -- the career reached an END.
Has spanned nearly fifty years implies that -- EVEN NOW -- the career is ONGOING.

The OA puts the main verb in the correct tense:
Lasting until the end of a second stint with General Motors, the career of Bob Lutz SPANNED two continents over nearly fifty years.

But does D not alter the meaning?

countless industry innovations were not necessarily at the four separate automakers? the original sentence does not indicate the same though I agree the other sentences are flawed with grammatical errors, should the takeaway here be:

choose the sentence that is grammatically correct even if the meaning is altered slightly provided the rest of the options can be eliminated? i.e choosing the best possible option as indicated by the question?

GMATGuruNY wrote:Another error in B is the following contradiction:
LASTING UNTIL THE END OF A SECOND STINT with General Motors, the career of Bob Lutz HAS SPANNED NEARLY FIFTY YEARS.
Lasting until the end of a second stint implies that -- at some point IN THE PAST -- the career reached an END.
Has spanned nearly fifty years implies that -- EVEN NOW -- the career is ONGOING.

The OA puts the main verb in the correct tense:
Lasting until the end of a second stint with General Motors, the career of Bob Lutz SPANNED two continents over nearly fifty years.

D) the career of Bob Luts, one of the automotive industry's true visionaries, spanned two continents over nearly fifty years, during which time Lutz was responsible for countless industry innovations at four separate automakers


"During which time" is this correct?

GMATGuruNY wrote:Another error in B is the following contradiction:
LASTING UNTIL THE END OF A SECOND STINT with General Motors, the career of Bob Lutz HAS SPANNED NEARLY FIFTY YEARS.
Lasting until the end of a second stint implies that -- at some point IN THE PAST -- the career reached an END.
Has spanned nearly fifty years implies that -- EVEN NOW -- the career is ONGOING.

The OA puts the main verb in the correct tense:
Lasting until the end of a second stint with General Motors, the career of Bob Lutz SPANNED two continents over nearly fifty years.

Mitch,

Awesome explanation.

I always get confused with past participle. Can we take for granted that 'HAS/HAVE+VERBed' denotes an action stared in the past and continuing as we speak? 'Past Participle' is just a fancy name for something that has started in the past and continues till now.

For example, I always get confused with sentences such as 'fossils have been dated' <- This is wrong because the 'dating' happened sometime in the past. We should just use 'fossils were dated'?

If we wanted to just tell something that ended in the past we could just use 'Simple Past' right? There would not be any 'Past Participle' at all.

Is this correct?

Thanks In Advance.

Al

Alchemist14 wrote: Mitch,

Awesome explanation.

I always get confused with past participle. Can we take for granted that 'HAS/HAVE+VERBed' denotes an action stared in the past and continuing as we speak? 'Past Participle' is just a fancy name for something that has started in the past and continues till now.

For example, I always get confused with sentences such as 'fossils have been dated' <- This is wrong because the 'dating' happened sometime in the past. We should just use 'fossils were dated'?

If we wanted to just tell something that ended in the past we could just use 'Simple Past' right? There would not be any 'Past Participle' at all.

Is this correct?

Thanks In Advance.

Al

The present perfect (has/have + VERBed) serves to express a PAST ACTION THAT AFFECTS THE PRESENT or a PAST ACTION THAT BEGAN IN THE PAST AND CONTINUES INTO THE PRESENT.

SC140 in the OG12:
Rock samples taken from the remains have been dated at 35 billion years old.
Here, the act of dating the rock samples -- an act that took place in THE PAST -- affects what we know about the rock samples in THE PRESENT.

An OA in GMATPrep:
Since the start of the space age, orbits near earth have become more and more littered.
Here, the act of littering began in THE PAST -- sometime after the start of the space age --and continues into THE PRESENT.

The modifier "Beginning in 1963" is modifying Bob Lutz, which is incorrect. It must modify Bob Lutz's career instead. So options (A) and (E) go away.
Options B and C use Present Perfect tense "has spanned" to describe a career that happened in the Past. A simple Past tense spanned is required here. Present Perfect tense suggests his career is ongoing
Option D is perfect, using the correct noun for the modifier (the career of Bob Lutz) and the correct verb tense (spanned).