OG12-SC135-Spanning more than 50 years

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kvcpk: Legendary Member; Posts: 1893; Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 11:48 pmFollowed by: 7 members; Thanked: 215 times

by kvcpk » Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:36 pm

Hi All,

Please read this before posting your reply.

Source of this question is OG-12. This question might have been discussed in BTG already. The very reason I am posting again is to approach SC in a structured way. Hence, I request everyone to post their comments in the following manner.

IMO: A/B/C/D/E

Approach/Steps used for choosing the right answer.

For other options, List the errors associated in the following style:
Option: A/B/C/D/E
Subject-Verb Agreement : NA
Parallelism: NA
Pronouns: NA
Modifiers: NA
Verb Tense:NA
Voice and Mood:NA
Comparisons:NA
Idioms:NA
Meaning/Conciseness:NA
Others:NA

This definitely takes a bit more time and effort. But it will help a lot of students to master OG questions/strategies. We need to know the best approach to solve these. It is equally important to know why the wrong answers are wrong. Explanation for each option will detail that out. Plan is to compile all these threads to a single place for future reference. Hope everyone agrees with me!!

Spanning more than 50 years, Friedrich MÃ¼ller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.
(A) MÃ¼ller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as
(B) MÃ¼ller's career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as
(C) MÃ¼ller's career began with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
(D) MÃ¼ller had begun his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
(E) the career of MÃ¼ller has begun with an unpromising apprenticeship of

OA B

Expecting active participation and do Let me know your thoughts!!

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:36 pm

pradeepkaushal9518: Legendary Member; Posts: 1309; Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:41 pmFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 33 times

by pradeepkaushal9518 » Tue Jul 13, 2010 2:29 am

kvcpk this is really good strategy for solving sc

after reading the question i found that this is combination of verb tense and meaning /conciseness. iwas stuck beetween
A and B
C and D use of being is always incorrect in Gmat
E passive voice

IMO: B

Approach/Steps used for choosing the right answer. :-

For other options, List the errors associated in the following style:
Option: A/B/C/D/E
Subject-Verb Agreement : NA
Parallelism: NA
Pronouns: NA
Modifiers: NA
Verb Tense:yes
Voice and Mood:NA
Comparisons:NA
Idioms:NA
Meaning/Conciseness:yes
Others:NA

i hope i have done well but u should not post oa with question

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kvcpk: Legendary Member; Posts: 1893; Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 11:48 pmFollowed by: 7 members; Thanked: 215 times

by kvcpk » Tue Jul 13, 2010 7:42 am

@Pradeep - Thanks for your comments - As suggested, I will hold the OA from next time.

Quick way to solve this:
What is "Spanning more than 50 years?"
"Muller" or "Muller's career"?
It is "Muller's Career".
AD OUT
"Apprenticeship as" is correct Idiom
"Apprenticeship of" is incorrect idiom. - E OUT
"Apprenticeship of being" is incorrect. - C OUT
pick B.

Errors in other options:
Option A:
"Muller's career" should be the subject of the sentence. Not "Muller".
Option B:
Apart from the correct idiom usage, "Muller's carrer" is used as correct subject for "..Culminated"
Option C:
"Aprrenticeship of being" is incorrect Idiom. "Apprenticeship as" is right.
Option D:
"Muller's career" should be the subject of the sentence. Not "Muller".
Unnecessary usage of Past perfect tense (had begun..)
"Aprrenticeship of being" is incorrect Idiom. "Apprenticeship as" is right.
Option E:
"Muller's Career" is preferred over "Career of Muller".
Unnecessary usage of present perfect (begun)
"Aprrenticeship of " is incorrect Idiom. "Apprenticeship as" is right.

Hope this helps!!

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fitzgerald23: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 219; Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2010 8:51 pmFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 62 times; GMAT Score:750

by fitzgerald23 » Tue Jul 13, 2010 7:58 am

IMO: B

Approach/Steps used for choosing the right answer.

First thing I did was glance at the answer choices after reading the sentence to see that the main split was going to be whether the subject of the sentence was Muller or career. Muller culminated is incorrect, so eliminate selections A & D.

I then eliminated E due to the use of "has begun" due to incorrect tense.

Choose B over C due to clarity and correct idiom.

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reply2spg: Legendary Member; Posts: 1261; Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 3:46 am; Thanked: 27 times; GMAT Score:570

by reply2spg » Tue Jul 13, 2010 8:13 am

You did an excellent thing man, appreciate it

IMO: B

Approach/Steps used for choosing the right answer.

For other options, List the errors associated in the following style:
Option: A/B/C/D/E
Subject-Verb Agreement : NA
Parallelism: NA
Pronouns: NA
Modifiers: NA
Verb Tense: -- Yes, has begun -- already begun and still in process, E out
Voice and Mood:NA
Comparisons:NA
Idioms:NA
Meaning/Conciseness: - Yes. Who is spanning Muller or Muller's career - Muller's career -- A, D out.
Others:NA
Has being - Yes C, D out

As of now A,C,D, and E out B remains. B it is

kvcpk wrote:Hi All,

Please read this before posting your reply.

Source of this question is OG-12. This question might have been discussed in BTG already. The very reason I am posting again is to approach SC in a structured way. Hence, I request everyone to post their comments in the following manner.

IMO: A/B/C/D/E

Approach/Steps used for choosing the right answer.

For other options, List the errors associated in the following style:
Option: A/B/C/D/E
Subject-Verb Agreement : NA
Parallelism: NA
Pronouns: NA
Modifiers: NA
Verb Tense:NA
Voice and Mood:NA
Comparisons:NA
Idioms:NA
Meaning/Conciseness:NA
Others:NA

This definitely takes a bit more time and effort. But it will help a lot of students to master OG questions/strategies. We need to know the best approach to solve these. It is equally important to know why the wrong answers are wrong. Explanation for each option will detail that out. Plan is to compile all these threads to a single place for future reference. Hope everyone agrees with me!!

Spanning more than 50 years, Friedrich MÃ¼ller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.
(A) MÃ¼ller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as
(B) MÃ¼ller's career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as
(C) MÃ¼ller's career began with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
(D) MÃ¼ller had begun his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
(E) the career of MÃ¼ller has begun with an unpromising apprenticeship of

OA B

Expecting active participation and do Let me know your thoughts!!

Sudhanshu
(have lot of things to learn from all of you)

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[email protected]: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 11; Joined: Fri Jun 06, 2008 10:15 pm; Thanked: 1 times

by [email protected] » Sat Apr 02, 2011 7:05 pm

Is "began in an unpromising apprenticeship " correct idiom?

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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 7:09 am

[email protected] wrote:Is "began in an unpromising apprenticeship " correct idiom?

Interesting question! After thinking about it for a bit, I think what determines the correct idiom for began is the correct idiom for what comes after. What I mean is, because you would say She is in a promising internship, you could say She began in a promising internship.

In an absolute sense, though, the normal idiom for marking a non-chronological start is began with (as in The word I was thinking of began with P). You would expect began on for a specific date and began at for a time -- again, using the normal idioms for those types of expressions apart from began.

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tanviet: Legendary Member; Posts: 1404; Joined: Tue May 20, 2008 6:55 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 18 times

by tanviet » Thu Nov 22, 2012 7:46 pm

in B the oa, what is "as a scholar"? the career is as scholar or the apprenticeship is as scholar?

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