1000 SC 64

[ranji]

After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), which was newly discovered, he had reached for a sheet of paper, crumpled it, and said, “It looks like that—beyond the mountains, more mountains.”

(A) After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), which was newly discovered, he had reached
(B) On being asked to describe the new discovery of the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti) by Queen Isabella, Admiral Columbus, reaching
(C) Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the newly discovered island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), then he reached
(D) When asked by Queen Isabella to describe the newly discovered island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), Admiral Columbus reached
(E) After Queen Isabella had asked Admiral Columbus to describe the discovery of the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), he had reached


answer id D.

But can someone point out all the reasons for A to be wrong? Is the usage of 'which' correct here? can which refer to a place? my understanding is that it should be a thing. Please clarify.

[pahwa]

Yes, which can refer place. The only thing you should know about which is that it refers to the noun just before it. So here which correctly refers to island of....

Well, the answer should be D.
What is wrong in A? Well, I find use HAD fishy. There is actually no need for HAD. Use HAD only when two actions are described to happen one after the other. If simple tenses can very well describe the situation well, please go ahead with these simple tenses.

D also has an extra advantage over A; Modifiers are correctly used.
"When asked by......, Admiral...." clearly states that Admiral was asked by Queen.

[ranji]

thx..1000 SC is giving me some good ideas on SC!

[aspiringgmat]

Just want confirmataion / explaination ... what is wrong with option C?

In option C "Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the newly discovered island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), then he reached" .... because after "," then started sentence so first part of sentence is modifying "then" rather than "he " . ... is this wrong with c??

Your comment is required!!

Thansk in advance !!

[tanviet]

lets check grammar

"had done" in A and E is used wrongly

"then" in C is the connecting adverb which connects 2 sentences. we need a conjunction which connects an independent clause with a dependent clause. "then" is not a conjunction.

lets check meaning.

I destroy b fast but do not understand why. I think there are many reason to destroy b, which I do not know. "reach" should be parallel to "crumple" . "on being" is complex unneccessarily

why b is wrong, pls, help.