Tenses doubt

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Tenses doubt

by conquistador » Mon Feb 22, 2016 6:37 am
Now decide which of the following sentences are correct from a tense perspective:

1. My grandfather was a carpenter until the day he died.
2. My grandfather had been a carpenter for 55 years by the time he died.
3. Having been a carpenter his entire adult life, my grandfather died in a house he had built himself.
4. In the triathlon, I swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles, and then ran a full marathon.
5. In the triathlon, I had already swum 2.4 miles and biked 112 miles before I even started the full marathon.

I believe 3 and 4 are incorrect.
How does being carpenter results in death in own house?
I believe then violated the rule of parallelism in sentence 4.
Can experts explain?

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by stevekeating » Thu Apr 07, 2016 10:47 pm
In my view 3 and 4 are correct. The use of "then" in 4 does not violate parallelism, as the three verbs all use the past tense. When considering whether verbs are parallel or not, it is a good idea to focus on the verbs themselves. 3 also looks good to me. The subject of the dangling modifier comes directly after the comma. This is something the GMAT loves to test and is a good one to know, as questions can be solved quickly if you can recognize dangling modifiers.