Sentence Correction

Though the city had been bombed for fifty-seven nights in a row, the Blitz and the refusal to surrender London afterward took on almost mythic significance as evidence of British citizens' ability to resist the will of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

the Blitz and the refusal to surrender London afterward took on
London's Blitz and the refusal to surrender took after
the Blitz and the refusal of the city of London took over
London's refusal to surrender after the Blitz took on
London's refusal to surrender after the Blitz took up

To me, it looks A.

only (D) and (E) make any sense..I'd go with (D). I believe 'took on' should be correct in this usage.

The correct answer should be D. Let me explain:

First off, in the context of the sentence, the correct idiom is "took on",

"took after" means resemble
"took up" means to start a new hobby etc.

Therefore the correct answer can be either A or D.

the Blitz and the refusal to surrender London afterward took on almost mythic significance as evidence of British citizens' ability to resist the will of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Now the problem with A is that:
The refusal to surrender London is in fact an evidence of Britishers' ability to resist. However, the Blitz isn't so. With the AND construction in the underlined portion above, it seems that the Blitz also refers to their ability to resist, but the Blitz is only the event. Hence A is wrong.

Hence D. Also, D is more admirable due to its brevity and the correctness in only showing that London's refusal to surrender. Even though it seems that it changes the meaning, it does not, since London's refusal to surrender is the same as its people's refusal to surrender. This is one of those gmatland questions, where the correct answer is not necessarily the best one that could be ever constructed, but certainly better than the rest.

IMO (A)

IMHO its D "Took on" is the most appropriate and the option D is the most concise of the available options.

was searching some companion for C..

What is the answer?

GmatKiss wrote:Though the city had been bombed for fifty-seven nights in a row, the Blitz and the refusal to surrender London afterward took on almost mythic significance as evidence of British citizens' ability to resist the will of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

the Blitz and the refusal to surrender London afterward took on
London's Blitz and the refusal to surrender took after
the Blitz and the refusal of the city of London took over
London's refusal to surrender after the Blitz took on
London's refusal to surrender after the Blitz took up