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Born in Calcutta

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by piyush_nitt » Tue May 12, 2009 3:49 am
Being a United States citizen since 1988 and born in Calcutta in 1940, author Bharati Mukherjee has lived in England and Canada, and first came to the United States in 1961 to study at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

(A) Being a United States citizen since 1988 and born in Calcutta in 1940, author Bharati Mukherjee has
(B) Having been a United States citizen since 1988, she was born in Calcutta in 1940; author Bharati Mukherjee
(C) Born in Calcutta in 1940, author Bharati Mukherjee became a United States citizen in 1988; she has
(D) Being born in Calcutta in 1940 and having been a United States citizen since 1988, author Bharati Mukherjee
(E) Having been born in Calcutta in 1940 and being a United States citizen since 1988, author Bharati Mukherjee

OA : C

I would like to know if there is anything wrong *gramatically * in sentences A and E. As per my understanding, "having been" is used to show something that happened in the past. The usage of having been in A and E seems correct to me. Please share your thoughts!
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by hk » Tue May 12, 2009 8:07 am
This sentence calls for Concision and Clear structure. The best way to put a clear sentence which has a lot of sequence of events relative to time is to put it in an ascending way, i.e., to put them in sequence starting from the events that occurred first. Now whats important in GMAT is to PICK THE BEST available option.

Here E is extremely lenghty and the meaning is not as clear as C. "Being in the U.S. and born in Calcutta" consists of two parallel modifiers to the Subject. This makes it a complex sentence. C avoids this and makes the sentence simple.
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by Jose Ferreira » Tue May 12, 2009 3:13 pm
Just wanted to throw in my two cents on why Answer A is incorrect.

For starters, "being" is an ugly GMAT word that is almost never correct, but that's not enough to eliminate the answer entirely.

For A to be correct, we would need some other past participle to align with "born" for proper parallelism. Something like:

"Born in Calcutta and raised in the US,"

or

"Born in Calcutta and told to stay in the US,"
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by crackgmat007 » Fri May 22, 2009 10:04 pm
can someone explain whether the tense makes sense in C...' she has lived....'

is present perfect tense appropriate for something that started and completed in the past?
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by crackgmat007 » Thu May 28, 2009 2:54 pm
Tense clarification pls!! is 'has lived' appropriate in option C?
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by vineetbatra » Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:37 am
Can someone please advice why "She has lived" is correct when the act of living in England and Canada has finished.

Please advice.

Vineet
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by farooq » Wed Dec 09, 2009 1:52 am
vineetbatra wrote:Can someone please advice why "She has lived" is correct when the act of living in England and Canada has finished.

Please advice.

Vineet
has + past participal is used in present continuous tenses. (Action started in the past and remains true in the present.)

As Jose said "being" is incorrect in GMAT questions. "Being" introduces passive voice which is not recommended in GMAT exam.

A is incorrect because the parts of first sentence are NOT parralel.

a US citizen.....and born in Calcutta.... violates ||sm.

Having been....represent that Bharti is US citizen from birth..but in actual this is not the case.

Moreover, in choice B, pronoun "she" doesn't has proper refferent in the first cluase. (";" is used to combine two independent clauses)

Only choice C remains :)
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by ironsferri » Mon May 31, 2010 5:39 pm
I first picked C but after looking at the passage, I saw that the focous of the original passage is that she lived in England and Canada. C changes that meaning; so why is it correct??
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by pradeepkaushal9518 » Mon May 31, 2010 7:06 pm
FIRST OF ALL C IS VERY CLEAR AND CONCISE OPTION COMPARED TO OTHERS.

HAS LIVED MEANS HER LIVING IN ENGLAND AND CANADA IS NOT FINISHED YET. HENCE PRESENT PERFECT
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by concept » Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:10 am
when 'having' is used, a causal connection is required to the main clause and that is absent in some wrong answers. Being cannot be used to identify 'properties/characters[like where he/she was born, his height etc..]' of an induvidual. SO some answers are wrong for that. hence C remains though it alters the meaning somewhat.
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by richachampion » Tue Feb 23, 2016 1:42 am
Here is my Version of understanding -

Being a United States citizen since 1988 and born in Calcutta in 1940, author Bharati Mukherjee has lived in England and Canada, and first came to the United States in 1961 to study at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

(A) Being a United States citizen since 1988 and (being)born in Calcutta in 1940, author Bharati Mukherjee has
The Modifier that starts with being illogically modifies "author Bharati Mukherjee". Grammatically i found no issues, but it changes the meaning that since the author was a United states Citizen and born in Calcutta thats why he lived in England and Canada. I also feel that "being born in Calcutta" is incorrect because some one takes birth just once in that real the tense "being" is inappropriate here.

(B) Having been a United States citizen since 1988, she was born in Calcutta in 1940; author Bharati Mukherjee
There are lot of issues here. Again grammatically the modifier "having "is placed correctly, but it again changes the meaning as I explained in Option A. Additionally the placement of events is not in a sequence. Pronoun is used before the actual noun in a different clause. IC(with Pronoun); IC(with noun)
(C) Born in Calcutta in 1940, author Bharati Mukherjee became a United States citizen in 1988; she has
(D) Being born in Calcutta in 1940 and having been a United States citizen since 1988, author Bharati Mukherjee
(E) Having been born in Calcutta in 1940 and being a United States citizen since 1988, author Bharati Mukherjee

D and E have the same errors as discussed above.
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