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Q20 - SC Test 4

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by garson0in » Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:34 am
Q20

The last time a political party failed to renominate a presidential incumbent was Chester A. Arthur.

a).....
b) Chester A. Arthur represents the last time a political party failed to renominate a presidential incumbent.
c) Chester A. Arthur was the most recent presidential incumbent who failed to win his party's renomination.
d)When, as a presidential incumbent, Chester A. Arthur failed to win his party's renomination, it was the most recent instance of such a failure.
e) Chester A. Arthur's failure to win his party's renomination represents the most recent instance of this happening to a presidential incumbent.


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The given answer is C. Is the verb "was" in option C correct ?
Also what is wrong with E.
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

Q20 - SC Test 4

by [email protected] » Wed Aug 08, 2007 8:15 am
Yes C is correct.
Was correctly denotes the correct tense used.
As far as E is consideered the sentence is too complex to be taken into consideration
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by graem83d » Tue Sep 02, 2014 7:35 am
That leaves us with C.
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by David@GMATPrepNow » Tue Sep 02, 2014 9:17 am
Hi garson0in,

"Was" in answer C matches "failed" (both verbs need to be in the past tense). Also, "was" is the singular past tense of the verb, which we need rather than "were" (because Chester A. Arthur is singular).

Answer E is overly long and awkward. For example, the phrase "of this happening" (where "this" awkwardly refers to failing to win the party's nomination) is out of place, and really unnecessary with a better sentence construction (such as found in answer C).
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