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King Henry VIII

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King Henry VIII

by Ankitaverma » Tue Dec 03, 2013 5:31 pm
In 1527 King Henry VIII sought to have his marriage to Queen Catherine annulled so as to marry Anne Boleyn.
(A) so as to marry
(B) and so could be married to
(C) to be married to
(D) so that he could marry
(E) in order that he would marry

Q/A-D why not A
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by [email protected] » Wed Dec 04, 2013 12:24 am
Hi Ankitaverma,

In this SC, the word "so" presents the reason WHY King Henry VIII sought to have his marriage annulled. However, the rest of the sentence, as written, does NOT state who is supposed to marry Anne Boleyn. Is it King Henry VIII or is it Queen Catherine? Now, we both "know" that it's supposed to be King Henry VIII, but because the way the original sentence is written, the idea is vague/ambiguous. We NEED the pronoun "he" to clarify the idea.

Final Answer: D

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by ilyana » Wed Dec 04, 2013 2:23 am
Ankitaverma wrote:In 1527 King Henry VIII sought to have his marriage to Queen Catherine annulled so as to marry Anne Boleyn.
(A) so as to marry
(B) and so could be married to
(C) to be married to
(D) so that he could marry
(E) in order that he would marry

Q/A-D why not A
Hello!

When I first encountered this problem I was very confused and had the same question as you do now. I read a lot of explanations, but they didn't seem convincing to me.

One of explanations (probably not to this particular problem) that I found (written by Ron) states that "so that" indicates direct intention, and "so as to" indirect intention. But then he himself admits that this is a very writerly difference and won't be tested on the GMAT.

After that I formed my own opinion on this problem:

A is incorrect just because the GMAT doesn't like "so as to"-structure.
Please click on "Thank" button if you think my post is helpful.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilyana-anderson-481846127/
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