Sentence Correction

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings.
A. Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
B. Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting
C. Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
D. Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of
E. Leakey’s contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of

Can someone plz. explain me which one is correct:-
In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey's contribution

What is "her" referring to........

https://www.beatthegmat.com/mary-leakey- ... html#94037

all doubts are already cleared here

iamcste wrote:https://www.beatthegmat.com/mary-leakey- ... html#94037

all doubts are already cleared here

Sorry but after reading this still my doubt is not clear.

Can we write like this:-
In addition to her work on the miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey's contribution to archaelogy............

what is her referring to?

'Her' is a possessive pronoun and it can refer to possessive nouns, subject nouns or object nouns.

So her can refer to the possessive Leakey's contributions
And can also refer to Mary Leakey herself

Hope its clear now

mals24 wrote:'Her' is a possessive pronoun and it can refer to possessive nouns, subject nouns or object nouns.

So her can refer to the possessive Leakey's contributions
And can also refer to Mary Leakey herself

Hope its clear now

Thanks.........

Final solution at one place:

Important: The purpose of this post (and all the other posts by me) is to give a complete solution to all GMAT-Prep Verbal questions at one place. Sometimes students have to wade through dozens of posts to get to the final answer. My posts will give one complete and crisp solution required to arrive at the correct answer by eliminating the wrong one. Some of the content in these posts may have been taken from various other sources (discussion forums).

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting East African cave paintings.
(A) Leakey contributed to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
(B) Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and by painstakingly documenting
(C) Leakey was a contributor to archaeology with her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
(D) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and her painstaking documentation of
(E) Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of

A, B: 'discovery' is not parallel to 'documenting'
E: 'discovering' is not parallel to 'documentation'
C: uses the wrong idiom 'was a contributor with' ... completely wrong.

D is correct.

Another version of the same question:

In addition to her work on the Miocene hominid fossil record, Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of East African cave paintings.
A. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology through her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and through her painstaking documentation of
B. Mary Leakey contributed to archaeology by her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
C. Mary Leakey was a contributor to archaeology by discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and with her painstaking documentation of
D. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovery of the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstakingly documenting
E. Mary Leakey's contributions to archaeology include her discovering the earliest direct evidence of hominid activity and painstaking documentation of

B, D: 'discovery' is not parallel to 'documenting'
C, E: 'discovering' is not parallel to 'documentation'

A is correct.