Too many commas in D. The sentence reads really choppy.

(C) is my pic for concise clarity.

:36

I agree with dahiya on this. We do need past continuous tense.
_________________

for every person who doesn't try because he is
afraid of loosing , there is another person who
keeps making mistakes and succeeds..

Clark and Florence Wallace, a husband-and-wife medical team, worked steadily and efficiently through the night, but sipping their coffee the next morning, she noticed that he seemed disoriented.
(A) sipping their coffee the next morning, she noticed that he seemed disoriented
(B) sipping their coffee the next morning, he seemed to be disoriented, she noticed
(C) as they sipped their coffee the next morning, she noticed that he seemed disoriented
(D) as they were sipping their coffee the next morning, he seemed, she noticed, disoriented
(E) he seemed disoriented, she noticed, sipping their coffee the next morning





Past continous is used to denote that an action was in progress at the time another action began example - I was jogging when she arrived

OR that two or more actions were happening simultaneously - while i was jogging she was singing.


Hence I agree with PS that the use of past continous would be appropriate because while the action of 'noticing' would have been virtually instantaneous, the 'sipping' would possibly have continued even after that.
So the sequence of events could have been - they were "sipping" when she "noticed"

However - and PS please correct me if I am wrong - the use of the adverbial "as" (as they sipped their coffee she noticed that...) establishes the fact that the "noticing" happened while the "sipping" was going on - by using a simple past tense alone. And as we are all too familiar GMAT would avoid using the -ing form wherever possible.


D has the other problem of being wordy and inconcise. I chose C as well on this...

I see what you mean..

I think we can debate on this whether the act of "noticing" coincided with the first sip of the coffee (and possibly as soon as the noticing concluded so did the sipping too) but it would be pedantic at best IMO.

I ruled out D only because the last part of the construct seemed to be incorrect with the commas et al. C just seemed more straightforward.

But you are right, it could have been very tricky..

C is the one.

A: sipping their coffee cannot modify 'she'
B: same as above
D: unnecessary change of tense, too wordy
E: same as A,B

Yup C here.... But i get what Dahiya is saying...

I think D can be ruled out bcos of the latter part, which is awkward.