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Christopher Columbus

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by rainmaker » Sat Aug 15, 2009 4:23 pm
Please provide proper reasoning for your answer.

Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

A. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

B. Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

C. Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.

D. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.

E. Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to sail west to see if he could reach India.
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Re: Christopher Columbus

by madhur_ahuja » Sat Aug 15, 2009 6:12 pm
IMO D

Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

A. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west. ....

B. Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west. ... accepting , sent are not parallel

C. Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain. ... Instead is incorrect ..

D. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain. ...

E. Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to sail west to see if he could reach India. ... Instead is incorrect
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by gmat740 » Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:13 pm
Edited : deleted

Sorry For wrong explanation.

OA is D
Last edited by gmat740 on Sun Aug 16, 2009 1:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Christopher Columbus

by umaa » Sat Aug 15, 2009 8:20 pm
rainmaker wrote:Please provide proper reasoning for your answer.

Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

A. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

B. Rather than accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to see if he could reach India by sailing west.

C. Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.

D. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus sailed west to see whether he could reach India, having been sent by the king and queen of Spain.

E. Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that the earth was flat, Christopher Columbus was sent by the king and queen of Spain to sail west to see if he could reach India.
C and D, both have changed the meaning. WRONG

E is wrong because, King and queen sent Columbus to see if he could reach India. Its the main motive. The main motive is not sailing west. Its to see India by sailing west.

A - Wrong. ACCEPTING is correct that ACCEPT. ACCEPTING acts as a participle here.

B - Correct

OA pls.
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by vishal1702 » Sun Aug 16, 2009 1:00 am
If in place of whether is not what GMAT wants so A, B & E ruled out...

Btw C & D, D looks better because accepting & sailed violate parallelism in C

IMO D
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by rainmaker » Mon Aug 17, 2009 2:07 pm
OA is D
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by riteshbindal » Mon Aug 17, 2009 7:10 pm
this question has already got discussed in forum
https://www.beatthegmat.com/sc-question-2-t23613.html
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by gkumar » Sun Oct 18, 2009 12:15 am
I am confused on this point.
X Rather than Y is the idiom
X and Y should be parallel and parallelism includes tenses.

He SAILED west rather than ACCEPTED/ACCEPT the conventional wisdom

Transposing the sentence to follow the question's structure:
Rather than ACCEPTED/ACCEPT the conventional wisdom, He SAILED west.

Shouldn't the Y be ACCEPTED since SAILED and ACCEPTED both have the same past tense? ACCEPT sounds wrong to my ear as well.

BTG Staff Please clarify! Thanks.
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