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OG12-SC135-Spanning more than 50 years

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OG12-SC135-Spanning more than 50 years

by rishijhawar » Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:15 pm

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Spanning more than 50 years, Friedrich Müller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.
(A) Müller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as
(B) Müller's career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as
(C) Müller's career began with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
(D) Müller had begun his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
(E) the career of Müller has begun with an unpromising apprenticeship of

[spoiler]OA after some discussion. My primary question is: if we had an option "Müller's career had begun in an unpromising apprenticeship as" would that be correct? Coz had begun signifies Müller's career began in the past (50 years earlier) and is the past of another past event-Culminated.
Or if the aforesaid past perfect construction is not correct, can someone please suggest a possible use of past perfect. [/spoiler]
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by avik.ch » Fri Mar 30, 2012 12:54 am

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An easier approach for this problem is parallelism.

Spanning more than 50 years, Friedrich Müller's career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.

the two same ideas are parallel
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Regarding the use of past perfect : consider this -

I entered the room and he left - both action took place at the same time.
I entered the room and he had left - wrong : we need some other connector here,
I entered the room but he had already left.

With "and" we had two events that are separate with no connection between them - and while there is no connection between them : perfect tense is not used with "and".
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by scorebeater » Fri Mar 30, 2012 1:11 am

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rishijhawar wrote:Spanning more than 50 years, Friedrich Müller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.
(A) Müller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as
(B) Müller's career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as
(C) Müller's career began with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
(D) Müller had begun his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
(E) the career of Müller has begun with an unpromising apprenticeship of

[spoiler]OA after some discussion. My primary question is: if we had an option "Müller's career had begun in an unpromising apprenticeship as" would that be correct? Coz had begun signifies Müller's career began in the past (50 years earlier) and is the past of another past event-Culminated.
Or if the aforesaid past perfect construction is not correct, can someone please suggest a possible use of past perfect. [/spoiler]
Step1: Learn the basic:

VERB-ING+ COMMA + Clause (SVO)

In this case, the S-subject-is doing the VERB-ING.

Example:
Coming from school, John played football.
--> Who has come from school? Answer: John.

In our sentence, it is Muller's career that spanned more than 50 years.

2. Parallelism:

---had begun and had culminated--Parallel.

Began and culminated--Parallel

When we add two verbs with and both of the verbs must be grammatically parallel.

So, finally "began ............and ........culminated" wins.
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by GmatKiss » Sun Apr 01, 2012 3:31 am

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IMO: B
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by GMAT Kolaveri » Sun Apr 01, 2012 5:17 am

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rishijhawar wrote:Spanning more than 50 years, Friedrich Müller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.
(A) Müller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as
(B) Müller's career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as
(C) Müller's career began with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
(D) Müller had begun his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
(E) the career of Müller has begun with an unpromising apprenticeship of

[spoiler]OA after some discussion. My primary question is: if we had an option "Müller's career had begun in an unpromising apprenticeship as" would that be correct? Coz had begun signifies Müller's career began in the past (50 years earlier) and is the past of another past event-Culminated.
Or if the aforesaid past perfect construction is not correct, can someone please suggest a possible use of past perfect. [/spoiler]
there is no ambiguity regarding which happened first (beginning of career or culmination of career). It is pretty clear that career began before culmination. Hence there is no need for perfect tenses even though the two events are related.
Hope my explanation helps
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Sun Apr 01, 2012 7:40 am

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Everyone else has this one pretty much covered, but I wanted to point out that this is a great example of a fairly tricky question where looking for the basic SC concepts can be a great way to narrow down the work you actually have to do. If we notice that the sentence starts with a modifying phrase (In this case "spanning more than 50 years"), then we must place the noun being modified after the comma. B and C are the only options that place "Muller's career" after the comma, so we can eliminate A, D, and E. From there, it's easier to analyze the differences between B and C and realize that B is the best option.

Oftentimes that 2/3 split (where 2 choices word something a certain way and 3 word it a different way) comes from a fairly basic concept, even on some tough questions.
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by parul1591 » Fri Jul 18, 2014 7:36 am

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Bill@VeritasPrep wrote:Everyone else has this one pretty much covered, but I wanted to point out that this is a great example of a fairly tricky question where looking for the basic SC concepts can be a great way to narrow down the work you actually have to do. If we notice that the sentence starts with a modifying phrase (In this case "spanning more than 50 years"), then we must place the noun being modified after the comma. B and C are the only options that place "Muller's career" after the comma, so we can eliminate A, D, and E. From there, it's easier to analyze the differences between B and C and realize that B is the best option.

Oftentimes that 2/3 split (where 2 choices word something a certain way and 3 word it a different way) comes from a fairly basic concept, even on some tough questions.
Hello

I was able to narrow down to options B and C using the same concept which you have applied.

Thereafter, I got stuck at the usage of the idiom 'began in' and 'began with'.

Isn't 'began with' the correct idiom ?

Appreciate your help!
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Re: OG12-SC135-Spanning more than 50 years

by tinku143 » Tue May 05, 2020 11:21 pm

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Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have reduced sickness, sleeping on the job, fatigue among shift workers, and have raised production efficiency in various industries.
Sickness, sleeping on job, fatigue and have raised … this is not a parallel list of nouns because raised is a verb

(A) fatigue among shift workers, and have raised
This list is not parallel

(B) fatigue among shift workers, and raised
Sickness, sleeping on job, fatigue and raised … this is not a parallel list of nouns because raised is a verb

(C) and fatigue among shift workers while raising
The insertion of while means that the actions happened simultaneously
This is possibly correct answer

(D) lowered fatigue among shift workers, and raised
Reduced Sickness, sleeping, lowered and raised is not parallel list.

(E) and fatigue among shift workers was lowered while raising
Reduced… And fatigue… Lowered… is not a parallel list.










Spanning more than fifty years,
Friedrich Muller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar
and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.
Spanning more than… , F M … modifies the career of FM hence this sentence is incorrect.
There are two clauses that are connected with and.

(A) Muller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as
(B) Muller’s career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as
Apprenticeship As a SS. This is correct
(C) Muller’s career began with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
Of being is incorrect
(D) Muller had begun his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being
Of being is incorrect
Had began is a past perfect tense used to compare two clauses
(E) the career of Muller has begun with an unpromising apprenticeship of
Has begun is in present perfect tense and culminated is in past tense. Hence this choice is incorrect.
Appp.. of is incorrect.
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