Griffith's cameraman Blitzer

[sulabh]

Griffith's cameraman Blitzer was a mechanical wizard, and what skill was lacking in his visual composition was more than compensated by his ability to combine gadgets and props to produce the required cinematic effects.
(A) what skill was lacking in his visual composition was more than compensated by
(B) what skills he was lacking in visual composition, he more than compensated for in
(C) whatever his visual composition lacked, he more than compensated in (D) whatever skills he lacked in visual composition, he more than compensated for by
(E) he more than compensated his lack of visual composition with

[gmatinjuly]

by his ability is apt…so eliminate B/C/E
WHATEVER skill he lacked ..is correct so eliminate A
Correct answer D

Whats oa ?

[chidcguy]

My pick is D as well.

We need a simple past ing form is wrong here A & B are wrong as they break parallelism. uses ing and past tense.

C is wrong as well for lack of parallelism

D correctly uses parallelism

Skills he lacked, he compensated

E to me doesn't fit in

[g_beatthegmat]

+1 for (d)

[codesnooker]

I am confused between (D) and (E) but at the end I will like to go with (E). What is correct OA?

A) --> what --> makes no sense.
B) --> same as (A).
C) --> Altered Meaning. He lacked the skill of visual composition, not his visual composition lacked any skills.
D) --> Sounds good but "for by" is pinching to me.
E) --> Again sounds good and full fill the desired meaning.

IMO: (E).

What is OA?

[sulabh]

OA is B.Can anyone tell me whats wrong with E?

[airan]

Sulabh,
Are we sure of the OAs ..I mean are these questions and OAs from some trusted source ?

[sulabh]

I don't know the source of this question.Its from one of the tests I downloaded from internet.Thats why am not too sure about the OA and put it up for discussion to see what evryone thinks !

[codesnooker]

OA is B.Can anyone tell me whats wrong with E?

I think, in (E) we are trying to compare two different things.

"Lack of visual composition" is not something that we can compare with his ability. I guess, it should be treated as "flaw" rather than "skills".

Whereas, in (B), the author clearly tries to compare his one skill with another.

But this is merely a guess and I am not sure about this.

Another thing, if (B) is correct then what is the problem with (A)???

[pinktoadette]

Griffith's cameraman Blitzer was a mechanical wizard, and what skill was lacking in his visual composition was more than compensated by his ability to combine gadgets and props to produce the required cinematic effects.
(A) what skill was lacking in his visual composition was more than compensated by
(B) what skills he was lacking in visual composition, he more than compensated for in
(C) whatever his visual composition lacked, he more than compensated in (D) whatever skills he lacked in visual composition, he more than compensated for by
(E) he more than compensated his lack of visual composition with

The correct idiom is compensated for, not by