If Marcel Proustâ€™s memory....

Expert replies

giovanni.gastone: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 51; Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2011 5:35 pm; Location: Florence, Italy

by giovanni.gastone » Fri Apr 01, 2011 4:47 am

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."

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Fri Apr 01, 2011 4:47 am

giovanni.gastone: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 51; Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2011 5:35 pm; Location: Florence, Italy

by giovanni.gastone » Fri Apr 01, 2011 4:58 am

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?

atulmangal: Legendary Member; Posts: 1112; Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:16 amFollowed by: 49 members; Thanked: 77 times

by atulmangal » Fri Apr 01, 2011 5:16 am

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???

HSPA: Legendary Member; Posts: 1101; Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 7:26 amFollowed by: 13 members; Thanked: 47 times; GMAT Score:640

by HSPA » Fri Apr 01, 2011 5:22 am

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

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

First take: 640 (50M, 27V) - RC needs 300% improvement
Second take: coming soon..
Regards,
HSPA.

aspirant2011: Legendary Member; Posts: 1574; Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:52 amFollowed by: 13 members; Thanked: 88 times

by aspirant2011 » Fri Apr 01, 2011 9:49 am

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................

force5: Legendary Member; Posts: 582; Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:48 amFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 61 times; GMAT Score:740

by force5 » Fri Apr 01, 2011 3:02 pm

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

giovanni.gastone: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 51; Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2011 5:35 pm; Location: Florence, Italy

by giovanni.gastone » Fri Apr 01, 2011 6:35 pm

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!

tetura84: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 165; Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2011 7:33 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Location: Pune, India; Thanked: 16 times

by tetura84 » Sat Apr 02, 2011 1:26 pm

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.

78 clicks can change my life !

Jim@Grockit: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 641; Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:07 pmFollowed by: 45 members; Location: Madison, WI; Thanked: 162 times; GMAT Score:760

by Jim@Grockit » Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:13 am

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.

gig92: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 78; Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 2:22 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 2 times

by gig92 » Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:35 am

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.

gig92

preeti6: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 7; Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2010 1:34 am

by preeti6 » Tue Apr 05, 2011 8:28 am

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

gig92: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 78; Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2010 2:22 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 2 times

by gig92 » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:32 am

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..

gig92

mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:07 am

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

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