GMAT OG 2019 In the 1940s popular magazines

Hello Everyone!

Let’s take a quick glance over the answers and look for major difference between them that we can address:

1. Verb Tense: featured vs. had featured
2. Transition: whereas vs. in spite of/in despite of

The quickest way to knock out 2-3 answers right away is to determine what verb tense we need. We have two past events to deal with, so we know the event nearest to the present will need past tense, and the even that happens before that will need past perfect tense. We know that before 1940, magazines featured people in business in politics. Since that happened first, it needs past perfect tense. Next, in the 1940s, magazines started to report on entertainers, so that needs plain present tense. Here are the two events in order, and the verb tenses they should use:

they previously had featured people in business and politics --> In the 1940s magazines began to report --> present

This means we only want answers that use the past perfect "had featured." Here is how each answer stacks up:

A. in despite of the fact that they previously had featured individuals --> OK
B. in spite of the fact previously that these publications featured articles on those --> WRONG
C. whereas previously there were those individuals featured in articles --> WRONG
D. whereas previously those individuals they featured were --> WRONG
E. whereas previously these publications had featured articles on individuals --> OK

Answers B, C, and D are INCORRECT because they use the past tense “featured” instead of the past perfect “had featured.”

That leaves us with only A and E to choose from. Let’s look at both to see if we find any other problems:

A. in despite of the fact that they previously had featured individuals

A is INCORRECT because of the phrase “in despite of the fact that.” This isn’t an idiomatic phrase in English (we say “in spite of the fact that”). Also, the GMAT prefers concise answers, and this phrase is overly wordy.

E. whereas previously these publications had featured articles on individuals

E is CORRECT because it uses the correct past perfect form of “had featured,” and it uses the much more concise “whereas” to show contrast!


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