Verb Error

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sparkles3144: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 145; Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2013 8:27 am; Thanked: 7 times

by sparkles3144 » Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:51 am

A commemorative silver dollar coin, issued in the same year as the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's expedition were celebrated, features the likeness of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the obverse and two feathers on the reverse.

(A) A commemorative silver dollar coin, issued in the same year as the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's expedition were celebrated,

Eliminated A because bicentennial is singular and were is plural.

(B) A commemorative silver dollar coin, issued in the same year of celebration as the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's expedition,

Eliminated B because it didn't sound right.

(C) A commemorative silver dollar coin was issued in the same year that the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's expedition was celebrated,

(D) A commemorative silver dollar coin, issued in the same year that the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's expedition was celebrated,

(E)Issued in the same year as the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark's expedition were celebrated, a commemorative silver dollar coin

Eliminated E because bicentennial is singular and were is plural.

Answer is D

I don't understand why C is wrong and D is right.
Can someone please explain?

Thanks!

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:51 am

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by [email protected] » Sun Jul 07, 2013 12:52 pm

Hi sparkles3144,

There are a couple of notable differences between the correct answer (D) and the incorrect answer that you're curious about (C):

1) The commas that you'll notice in the original prompt point to modification as a likely grammar rule to be used in this SC. Answer C removes a comma, which changes the style of the sentence.
2) The phrase that appears between the two commas is a "descriptive phrase", which needs to be placed right next to the noun that it's describing (in this case, the silver dollar coin)
3) Answer C uses the word "was" twice ("was issued" and "was celebrated") which is redundant (bad style).

This style of modification (modifying phrase offset by a comma) usually shows up once or twice in the Verbal section, so be on the lookout for it.

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