Sentence Correction

Contrary to popular myth, war heroes rarely earn their status by acting as if they themselves are invincible.

(A) if they themselves are invincible
(B) though they are invincible
(C) being invincible
(D) invincible
(E) if they were invincible
[spoiler]
Correct answer :E

reason: Subjunctive tense... I don't understand! =( Thanks for the help![/spoiler]

A is incorrect because it's in the present tense whereas the rest of the sentence isn't.

B is incorrect because it would change the meaning of the sentence.

C & D are incorrect because they're incomplete and don't fit in.

Contrary to popular myth, war heroes rarely earn their status by acting as if they themselves are invincible.

(A) if they themselves are invincible – too awkward with “they themselves”, eliminate it

(B) though they are invincible – “as though” destroys the meaning of the original argument, so leave it

(C) being invincible – “being” is rarely used in GMAT answers, when you seen such answers, take into account that there is a very small possibility that this answer will be right

(D) invincible - destroys the meaning of the original argument because doesn’t take into account that people earning war heroes status are not invincible in reality

(E) if they were invincible – CORRECT; when people become heroes, they are not invincible in realty, so we need to have subjunctive here.