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Having the right hand...

by sandeep_chhabra » Fri May 16, 2008 12:49 am
Having the right hand and arm being crippled by a sniper's bullet during the First World War. Horace Pippin,
a Black American painter, worked by holding the brush in his right hand and guiding its movements with his
left
(A) Having the right hand and arm being crippled by a sniper's bullet during the First World War
(B) In spite of his right hand and arm being crippled by a sniper's bullet during the First World War
(C) Because there had been a sniper's bullet during the First World War that crippled his right hand and
arm
(D) The right hand and arm being crippled by a sniper's bullet during the First World War
(E) His right hand and arm crippled by a sniper's bullet during the First World War


I am little confused between B and E. Can anyone pls guide.

thanks
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by saurabhvn » Fri May 16, 2008 2:04 am
Correct option is E.

Opt out B for hazy construction of sentence starting with INSPITE OF HIS ...doesnt make sense.

Whereas in E,His right hand and arm crippled clearly modifies subject of the sentence Horace Pippin.
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by lunarpower » Fri May 16, 2008 10:55 pm
saurabhvn wrote:Correct option is E.

Opt out B for hazy construction of sentence starting with INSPITE OF HIS ...doesnt make sense.

Whereas in E,His right hand and arm crippled clearly modifies subject of the sentence Horace Pippin.
there are two things wrong with choice b.

1) the participial construction isn't the greatest thing; if you read through o.g. answer explanations, you'll discover that the gmat frowns on this sort of thing:
in spite of his right hand and arm being crippled by a sniper's bullet...
in correct formal english, if you're going to have a construction like this, you actually have to preface it with a possessive. in other words, you'd say something like 'in spite of my arriving late...', not 'in spite of me arriving late...' unfortunately, there's no way to make a similar construction for this sentence without an absolutely unacceptable degree of awkwardness.

2) the sentence doesn't make logical sense: in spite of is simply inappropriate here. in fact, the crippled right hand and arm are the reason for the way in which horace pippin painted, so the phrase 'in spite of' contravenes the intended meaning of the sentence.
if you're going to have a transition, then, you want a transition that expresses this causality: perhaps 'because his right hand and arm were crippled...' unfortunately, the only answer choice featuring this sort of transition - choice (c) - is just terrible. therefore, you'll go with choice (e), which implies the transition but does so with respectable grammar.
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