Sentence Correction

SOURCE: PrincetonReview

If Marcel Proust's memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine, he might never have been moved to write Remembrance of Things Past.

A. had not been stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine
B. had not been stirred by means of the felicitous taste of a madeleine
C. were not to be stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine
D. were not to be stirred by the taste of a felicitous madeleine
E. should not be stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine

OA: A

PrincetonReview's Explanation: "Yes. This is correct as written."

Does anyone else agree that there seems to be a problem with the lack of a clear antecedent for "he"? Am I wrong, or does it seem like PR's grammar seems off?

giovanni.gastone wrote:Does anyone else agree that there seems to be a problem with the lack of a clear antecedent for "he"? Am I wrong, or does it seem like PR's grammar seems off?

I agree with you, i think all the choices are INCORRECT as HE has no referent...it can not refer to possessive Marcel Proust's...secondly in IF clause past perfect is used and in the following clause present perfect is used...is this correct???

How is this " If I WERE you" kind of statement is missing here???

Is this MOOD for only first and second person???

we don't require a subjunctive mood over here,therefore,the usage of "if i were" for this following sentence is not correct, though I agree in A "he" doesn't have a clear antecedent but out of the 5 choices the best one seems to be A................

I will go with A . As far as "HE" is concerned yes it is grammatically incorrect but it is not hurting us.

Thanks guys. Yeah, I know this is really not an issue, and the correct answer is obvious either way, but I wanted to make sure I was correctly spotting grammatical errors. Thanks!

I would rather prefer to avoid these kind of questions (and sources as well ) because this would only add confusion in my understanding.
This sentence is clearly wrongly written. He cannot refer back to Marcel P.
Remember,
Possessive noun + non-possessive pronoun (subject or object pronoun) IS NOT OK.
All other combinations are OK.

tetura84 wrote:I would rather prefer to avoid these kind of questions (and sources as well ) because this would only add confusion in my understanding.
This sentence is clearly wrongly written. He cannot refer back to Marcel P.
Remember,
Possessive noun + non-possessive pronoun (subject or object pronoun) IS NOT OK.
All other combinations are OK.

Just to be clear, it's wrong only because we lack context. If Marcel Proust had been the subject of an entire paragraph and there were no other male human mentioned in it, the sentence would be fine.

I know you may well have been speaking of the GMAT only in saying it's wrong, but since you all will go on to write many proposals, analyses, and memos in your MBA programs, I feel the need to point out where GMAT-correct deviates from Real English-correct.

giovanni.gastone wrote:Does anyone else agree that there seems to be a problem with the lack of a clear antecedent for "he"? Am I wrong, or does it seem like PR's grammar seems off?

The sentence:
If Marcel Proust's memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine, he might never have been moved to write Remembrance of Things Past.

Look again:
If Marcel Proust's memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine

Here the main subject is Marcel Proust (and main noun Marcel Proust's memory) - Ok - followed by a description - this makes the whole clause "a noun phrase" and "he" which follows after "comma" acts as "conjunction" describing the subject (Marcel Proust).

Thus ans: A

B is wordier and clumsy
C,D, grammatically incorrect either due to subject-verb and tense errors.
E tense error.

Wouldnt this snetence represent a hypothetical subjunctive format? Then wouldn't D that uses "were" be right?

preeti6 wrote:Wouldnt this snetence represent a hypothetical subjunctive format? Then wouldn't D that uses "were" be right?

If it were a hypothetical subjunctive, we can write it "If Marcel Proust's memory were not stirred"... "to be" would be unnecessary here..

Surprisingl, no one has commented on the very precise Explanation given by PR . The OE has nothing to learn.