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1000sc #970

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by reachac » Fri Jun 20, 2008 11:28 pm
970. Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee pddler has learned before him, knew how to use a good story to generate good will.
(A) Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, knew
(B) Discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, Lincoln knew
(C) Lincoln, discovering the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned in young manhood before him, knew
(D) In young manhood Lincoln discovered the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him;
(E) Lincoln, discovered in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him, knew
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by loki.gmat » Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:46 am
present continuous tense (ing construction) is incorrect here.
hence eliminate A B n C.

E - discovered (misplaced modifier) is incorrectly modifying "in young manhood" whereas it should modify "the secret".hence incorrect.

hence IMO D, although not sure whether the sentence "how to use a good story to generate good will" will stand independently.


Thanks!
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by shipra » Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:09 am
IMO D...
others dont really make much sense...
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by reachac » Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:36 am
I also marked D.....Well OA is B. B dosent look that bad except that 'has ' dosent fit in at all. Can we give B another thought?
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by duke » Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:47 am
reachac wrote:I also marked D.....Well OA is B. B dosent look that bad except that 'has ' dosent fit in at all. Can we give B another thought?
D is wrong since after semicolon, we need to have a perfect clause.
Looking for 780~
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by arora007 » Sat Jul 24, 2010 3:30 am
I also marked D, and was heartbroken to see the answer...

whenever in doubt... i cross check with these posts...

https://gmatsentencecorrection.blogspot. ... chive.html

"D is the best among all wrong choices"

alas....something did work for me!!
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by gmat_perfect » Sat Jul 24, 2010 4:12 am
reachac wrote:970. Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee pddler has learned before him, knew how to use a good story to generate good will.
(A) Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, knew
(B) Discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, Lincoln knew
(C) Lincoln, discovering the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned in young manhood before him, knew
(D) In young manhood Lincoln discovered the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him;
(E) Lincoln, discovered in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him, knew
My approach:

1. Comma + VerbING:

=> Modifies the entire preceding clause. In the options A and C, there is no clause before "comma + Verbing"

2. Comma + Verbed:

=> Modifies the immediate preceding noun or pronoun. In the option E, the verbed has wrongly modified Lincoln.

3. B is wrong for two reasons:
3.1. Discovering should be followed by what has been discovered.
3.2. Wrong use of tense. The use of present perfect is not correct here.

I choose D.

Thanks for posting this question.
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by paes » Sat Jul 24, 2010 9:23 am
gmat_perfect,

your reasoning for A ans C is not correct.

comma + ing can modify to a noun also.

Find a better explanation by Bob here :

https://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentenc ... poe-3.html
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by kvcpk » Sat Jul 24, 2010 1:01 pm
paes wrote:gmat_perfect,

your reasoning for A ans C is not correct.

comma + ing can modify to a noun also.

Find a better explanation by Bob here :

https://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentenc ... poe-3.html
Thanks for the link Paes!!
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