Thoreau stood by his principles and went to jail, instead of

[Mike@Magoosh]

Thoreau stood by his principles and, going to jail, instead of paying taxes supporting the Mexican-American War that he felt was unjust.
(A) Thoreau stood by his principles and, going to jail, instead of paying taxes supporting the Mexican-American War that he felt was unjust.
(B) Standing by his principles and going to jail, rather than paying taxes, Thoreau felt the Mexican-American War to be unjust.
(C) Thoreau did not pay taxes supporting the Mexican-American War because he felt it was unjust; instead, he stood by his principles and went to jail.
(D) Feeling the Mexican-American War was unjust, Thoreau, instead of paying taxes, stood by his principles and went to jail, because they supported it.
(E) Rather than paying taxes supporting the Mexican-American War, Thoreau, standing by his principles and going to jail, felt it as unjust.

Diction is one of the eight major area on the GMAT SC. For a discussion of this important topic, as well as the OA & OE of this question, see:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/more-on-diction/

Mike

[appy_fizz]

First of all thanks a ton Mike for sharing such beautiful concepts. I have one small query regarding the stand alone nouns. The usage of stand alone noun "Thoreau" in 4 and 5 option is incorrect or correct?

[aditya8062]

The usage of stand alone noun "Thoreau" in 4 and 5 option is incorrect or correct?

why do feel that it is stand alone? you can read it as bold:

D says: Feeling the Mexican-American War was unjust, Thoreau, instead of paying taxes, stood by his principles and went to jail, because they supported it.

E says: Rather than paying taxes supporting the Mexican-American War, Thoreau, standing by his principles and going to jail, felt it as unjust


i agree that D and E are wrong for other reason but if u contending that D and E are fragment then i suppose that is not the case ----->the subject "Thoreau" is very much having its "verb" hence it is OK grammar wise

[Mike@Magoosh]

First of all thanks a ton Mike for sharing such beautiful concepts. I have one small query regarding the stand alone nouns. The usage of stand alone noun "Thoreau" in 4 and 5 option is incorrect or correct?

Dear appy_fizz,
It appears that aditya8062 already provided an excellent answer. I just wanted to check to make sure everything is clear.

It is 100% true that truly stand-alone nouns, nouns not connected to anything else, are always wrong. It's also true that just because a noun is not obviously connected to anything right next to it doesn't mean it's stand-alone ---- the GMAT loves the [noun][noun modifier][verb] structure that I used here. The stand-alone noun does appear in the double-subject mistake:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/915-the ... ct-mistake

Does all this make sense?
Mike