Although his early critics had viewed Christopher Marlowe as

Although his early critics had viewed Christopher Marlowe as a talented and brilliant writer and had often compared his plays to those of Shakespeare, until almost 1950, modern critics and biographers did not begin seriously to consider the literary merits of his works.


(A) until almost 1950, modern critics and biographers did not begin seriously to consider. > Although is used therefore Contrast needed ie not until that

(B) not until almost 1950 were modern critics and biographers to begin seriously to consider > awkward usage

(C) it was not until almost 1950 that modern critics and biographers seriously began considering. Bingo...!!! Everything is at place.

(D) until almost 1950 modern critics and biographers had not begun seriously considering > Although is used therefore Contrast needed ie not until that


(E) it was not almost until 1950 when modern critics and biographers began to seriously consider. > Until then less preferred over until that in this sentence because if the meaning conveyed(ALSO QUESTION SAYS SERIOUSLY BEGAN TO CONSIDER NOT BEGIN TO SERIOUSLY CONSIDER) this is my view

isn't C changing the meaning?
seriously began?
while in the original sentence - began to seriously consider.
I eliminated C because of this subtle change of meaning.

The original sentence has "began seriously to consider", not "began to seriously consider".

Hi all,
I think that "not almost until" and "not until almost" are similar
Is my understanding correct ?

Since "almost" modifies "1950", it is better to place "almost" next to "1950".

HI ,
E IN MY VIEW IS WRING BECAUSE IT USES SPLIT INFINITIVE WHICH IS A STRICT NO IN GMAT . A,B,D USE WRONG TENSE THERFORE YOU ARE LEFT WITH C ONLY.

When within the pressure cooker time at hand on the D-day, it will be prudent to eliminate first grammatical errors before attempting to go by meaning. This is a classical model of such an approach.

First thing is that an adverb modifies a verb it follows. In A and B and E what follows 'seriously' is to consider, an infinitive that is not a verb. For that matter even in D, the adverb is modified by a participle rather than a verb. This is ungrammatical. Therefore, one can make bold to omit A, B, D, and E.

On the contrary, C properly uses 'seriously began', which is the correct diction.

Hi GMATNinjaTwo GMATNinja,

I was wondering could you please explain how option E deviates from the original intent of our sentence? Original sentence says "begin seriously to consider" and option E says "began to seriously consider"? Is it because the preposition "to" is places before "seriously" in option E? If so, can't we say option C also changes the original intent of our sentence? Option C says "seriously began considering" whereas option A says "begin seriously to consider"

Would greatly appreciate it!

csaluja

Although his early critics had viewed Christopher Marlowe as a talented and brilliant writer and had often compared his plays to those of Shakespeare, until almost 1950, modern critics and biographers did not begin seriously to consider the literary merits of his works.

grammar:" seriously " is an adverb . Adverb modfies a base verb . nearest base verb is "begin" . " to consider " is an infinitive verb (which is not a base verb ).

meaning : although early critics thought of C as talented bl bla bla , the scientists did not begin seriously (they just were doing minimal ,over the surface , not so deep research on his work) to consider. But afterwards they began seriously ( going in deep) to consider his work .

Now E is grammatically wrong : because seriously though placed between "to and consider " , the entire "to+consider" is an infinitive verb and not " base verb"

meaning wise : original meaning "began seriously " . We began seriously . NOT seriouslt started considering.

"to + verb " = is an adverb itself . it can modify anoher verb. but then 2 adverbs modfying no verb??? .
Remember : "to+verb" is an infinitive verb . Adverb cannot modify infinitive. infinitive is itself an adverb

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