Sentence Correction

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow down our choices to the right one! To start, let's take a quick look at the original question and highlight any major differences between the options in orange:

Of all the scandals of 1984 election season, maybe none is controversial as the one that ended the 30-year political career of the senator from Alaska.

(A) maybe none is controversial as
(B) maybe it is none that was more controversial than
(C) perhaps none was more controversial than
(D) it maybe that none is more controversial as
(E) perhaps it is none that is more controversial than

After a quick glance over the options, we have a few areas we can focus on:

1. maybe / maybe it is / perhaps / it maybe that / perhaps it is (Pronouns & Meaning)
2. is / was (Verb Tense)
3. as / than (Comparisons & Idioms)

Let's skip #1 on our list for now because no matter which construction we choose, it will only eliminate 1 option at a time. It's best to focus our time on areas that will eliminate 2-3 options at a time. Let's instead tackle #2 on our list: Verb Tense. To determine what verb tense we need, let's look at the original sentence for clues:

Of all the scandals of 1984 election season, maybe none is controversial as the one that ended the 30-year political career of the senator from Alaska.

Since the sentence is dealing with only past events (scandals that occurred during the 1984 election), we should avoid using the present tense "is," since it's not 1984 anymore. We're not comparing 1984 scandals to todays' scandals - we're comparing 1984 scandals to other 1984 scandals. So let's eliminate any that use present tense:

(A) maybe none is controversial as
(B) maybe it is none that was more controversial than
(C) perhaps none was more controversial than
(D) it maybe that none is more controversial as
(E) perhaps it is none that is more controversial than

We can eliminate options A, D, & E because they use the present tense, which we know is wrong here. Now that we're down to only 2 options, let's take a closer look at each option to find problems:

(B) maybe it is none that was more controversial than
This is INCORRECT because there is an unnecessary pronoun and it's overly wordy. It's not clear what the word "it" is referring back to here - because it's not referring to anything. It's also excessively wordy. You don't need to say "none that was more" when "none more" will do. This option includes two things that the GMAT dislikes - vagueness and wordiness!

(C) perhaps none was more controversial than
This is CORRECT! It's clear, concise, and set entirely in the past!

There you have it - option C is the correct choice! By tackling differences that eliminate 2-3 options at a time, you can narrow down your choices quickly!


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