HannahFurr wrote:A pioneer journalist, Nellie Bly's exploits included circling the globe faster than Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg.
A. A pioneer journalist, Nellie Bly's exploits included
B. The exploits of Nellie Bly, a pioneer journalist, included
C. Nellie Bly was a pioneer journalist including in her exploits the
D. Included in the pioneer journalist Nellie Bly's exploits are
E. The pioneer journalist's exploits of Nellie Bly included
oa: B
Confused with "B".
Can "a pioneer journalist" modifies "Nellie Bly"?
The subject is the exploits, right?
Can any expert explain? Thanks!!!!
On the GMAT, we are looking for the most concise and logically correct option. Generally, assuming all other things equal (in terms of the grammatical rules such as Subject-Verb Agreement, Parallelism, Pronoun Errors, etc.), the verb form of a construction is always considered more "concise" than the noun form. The reason for this preference, on the GMAT and in formal English, is that the verb form is the most direct and succinct way to indicate an action. In most cases, using the verb form automatically results in a more precise and active construction, whereas using the noun form leads to unnecessary awkwardness and wordiness.
For instance, let us look at the following example to illustrate this -
Option A - John completed (verb) the task vs
Option B - The completion (noun) of the task was carried out by John
As we can see from the simple example above, using the verb form automatically results in a more precise, elegant, and pleasing construction. This is one of the concepts that we are going to apply to this question.
A. A pioneer journalist, Nellie Bly's exploits included - The subject after the modifier is incorrect. The subject should be "Nellie Bly" and not "Nellie Bly's exploits".
Eliminate
B. The exploits of Nellie Bly, a pioneer journalist, included - Perfect. "A pioneer journalist" describes "Nelly Bly". Also, the
verb form "included" is used, which always results in a more precise and succinct construction (see above) than an '-ing' or the noun form.
C. Nellie Bly was a pioneer journalist including in her exploits the - The '-ing' form "including" is awkward (see above).
Eliminate
D. Included in the pioneer journalist Nellie Bly's exploits are - The plural verb "are" is incorrect, since we are only talking about a single exploit, i.e., "circling the globe..".
Eliminate
E. The pioneer journalist's exploits of Nellie Bly included - Distorts the original meaning of the sentence; This option seems to suggest that Nellie Bly and the "pioneer journalist" are two
different people, whereas as per the original sentence, Nellie Bly
is the pioneer journalist.
Eliminate
Hence,
B is the correct answer.
