Even as they never forgave the Crusaders who overran their homeland, the Syrians have never absolved the French for taking territory from them.

(A) Even as they never forgave
(B) While they never forgave - this seem the say while they never forgave x..., they did forgive y... (which is not what the sentence means to convey. hence awkward)
(C) Just like they never forgave
(D) Similarly to not forgiving - Awkward
(E) In spite of their never forgiving - Awkward

Like compares two nouns - like lemon, orange is sometimes sour.
As is used to compare clauses which have a subject and a verb -- Even as they never forgave the crusaders..the Syrians have never absolved the French

I go with A

mundasingh123 wrote:Even as they never forgave the Crusaders who overran their homeland, the Syrians have never absolved the French for taking territory from them.

(A) Even as they never forgave

(C) Just like they never forgave

I also feel that A is much better than C because Just like is basically used for comparison where two parts of the sentence are being compared Apple to Apple but in the above sentence we are not comparing two parts of the sentences.......

I am also confused between option A and C.

Just googled and found that this question is picked from

https://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 99,00.html

I don't know why but 1000SC questions are always very dicey and always look totally un-GMAT.

Frankly speaking -- I am not convinced with any of the choices.

Why on earth 'Even' is put in this sentence ?

Will go with C

(A) Even as they never forgave
For me, it should be "Even as they never did something, they did something else" Negative -> positive and not "Even as they never did something ,they never did something else" Negative -> Negative

Please correct me if am wrong!

+1 for C
Expert please throw some light

+1 for C

Expert help please

IMO C

Folks lets stop calling things "awkward" without a proper justification. I would say 1/10 "awkward" answers are just pure awkward with no justification to follow.

Even as they never forgave the Crusaders who overran their homeland, the Syrians have never absolved the French for taking territory from them.

(A) Even as they never forgave
"forgave" and "absolved" are in the same tense.

"they" is the subject of the first clause, "Syrians" is the subject of the second clause. Hence "they"="Syrians". No pronoun ambiguity whatsoever.

This sentence is correct. Despite the slightly awkward "Even" starting the sentence. Its not my preference but it is correct.


(B) While they never forgave

The "While" in this sentence is trying to setup a contrasting idea but it fails at setting a two contrasting ideas/concepts etc. EX. "While running on a treadmill can burn X calories/hour, running outside can burn Y calories/hour". "While boxing is a sport renown for developing an athletes endurance, gymnastics is known for employing an athletes agility." -While X is known for developing, Y is known for employing. The sentence just has to be parallel.

In this sentence we are using a "while" but not really contrasting anything.

"While they [[the Syrians]] never forgave the Crusaders, they never absolved BLAH BLAH BLAH." Those are the same concepts, we are not really contrasting anything here folks.

(C) Just like they never forgave

We only use "like" to compare nouns! Period. "As" to compare clauses.

Like [[They never forgave]], [[the Syrians]]. Were not comparing two nouns here. The sentence is attempting to compare a clause with a noun. This is a no no!


(D) Similarly to not forgiving
(E) In spite of their never forgiving

D) and E) are both wrong because of verb tense. The usage of "forgiving" in the first clause does not match the main verb in the second clause "absolved".

D) Makes an illogical comparison. "Similary to not forgiving.., the Syrians.."



Hope this clears this question up. Please no more silly called out answers, were you just blurt out an answer even if its wrong.

I just also want to quickly say that I agree with GMATKISS. Answer A)'s usage of "Even" is suspect and a bit unusual. This is a 1000SC GMAT question. Not an official GMAC question.

They are not perfect. However, what I do know is that the other choices are absolutely wrong and that is more important than something that is slightly awkward but grammatically correct. I think 1000SC questions really keep you on your toes in eliminating whats wrong, rather than finding out what is right.

I hope that made sense. Best of luck.