Sentence Correction- Unable to find fault

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Sentence Correction- Unable to find fault

by hai1 » Fri Dec 25, 2009 7:50 am
Q: Galileo did not invent the telescope, but on hearing, in 1609, that such an optical instrument had been made, he quickly built his own device from an organ pipe and spectacle lenses.
1) Galileo did not invent the telescope, but on hearing, in 1609, that such an optical instrument had been made, he
2)Galileo had not invented the telescope, but when he heard, in 1609, of such an optical instrument having been made,
3)Galileo, even though he had not invented the telescope, on hearing, in 1609, that such an optical instrument had been made, he
4)Even though Galileo did not invent the telescope, on hearing, in 1609, that such an optical instrument has been made, he
5)Even though Galileo did not invent the telescope, but when he heard, in 1609, of such an optical instrument having been made, he
My Answer: 4 is a wrong choice.
Reasoning: I thought the original sentence is incorrect because "But on hearing" appeared as an incorrect idiom. Hence my choice is any sentence with even though.
Option 3 has an incorrect modifier after first comma.
Option Even though and but when are redundant.

However my choice was wrong. At this time after months of preparation I am still unable to figure out correct choice in sentence correction. Not only that, I am still unable to understand the reasoning behind correct answer choice [spoiler](1)[/spoiler]

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by GambitOS » Sat Dec 26, 2009 12:05 am
I thought the original sentence is incorrect because "But on hearing" appeared as an incorrect idiom.
What is the correct idiom?

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by hai1 » Sat Dec 26, 2009 6:50 am
Gambit, I am not sure of the correct idiom. I only felt that "but on hearing" is not a correct idiom. Sounds like it isn't.

Nikhil, that is a good discussion on this question. Thanks for pointing it out. I didn't felt an iota of doubt that "Even though" will completely change the meaning of the sentence.

"Even though he didn't discovered it, he built it." What was wrong? I still had the question. However the thread pointed to a discussion by Ted in this forum in which Ted points out a missing paradoxical relationship.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-prep-ga ... 34256.html

Thanks for pointing to this. It really helped.