Eighteenth century physicians noted that the garlic eating French priests who attended victims of the plague during an outbreak in london remained healthy, while the English priests shunning the odiferous herb soon become ill.
A....
B.whereas the English priests shunning the odiferous herb soon become ill
C.while the Enligh priests, who shunned the odiferous herb, soon became ill
D.and the English priests, who shun the odiferous herb, became ill soon
E.while the English priests soon become ill and shunned the odiferous herb

As usual OA will follow

while - meaning at the same time.

While is not correct here. whereas is the correct usage But B also has a problem shunning

Hi

I do not see anything wrong with B. can anyone explain whats wrong with B. For the other choices, below is my explaination..


Eighteenth century physicians noted that the garlic eating French priests who attended victims of the plague during an outbreak in london remained healthy, while the English priests shunning the odiferous herb soon become ill.
A.... The main error in this is the presence of "While", an example for such sentence . He hit me with a stick WHILE i was running. Similar to the sentence above, the statement says, The Physicians noted that the French priests remained healthy while the english preiest become ill. Does it not sound like the french priest remained only when the english were not healthy. Compare this with the explaination in choice B.

B.whereas the English priests shunning the odiferous herb soon become ill. This is the right choice. Correct choice. Usage of WHEREAS. THe physicians noted that the English were healthy, wheareas the french were not. Clear statement. example for a similar one. I noted that, John completed his home work in time, whereas Jim does not. John noted that, his left side neighbours where who, listening to music stay calm, whereas the right side neighbours who do not listen to music do not stay calm. Clear statement. This is a comparision statement, between habits of French priest and that of the English.


C.while the Enligh priests, who shunned the odiferous herb, soon became ill - Wrong again. the presence of WHILE.

D.and the English priests, who shun the odiferous herb, became ill soon. This also is pretty close, but whereas does the comparision is what the physicans noted. Hence wrong.

E.while the English priests soon become ill and shunned the odiferous herb - the same problem as A. Wrong.



Regards
_________________

Giving another SHOT

Hello Aonie

The action is a past tense - NOTED, ATTENDED, BECOME.

Had the verb been, ATTEND, then BECAME would fit in to it.

Example :- Eighteenth century physicians noted that the garlic eating French priests who attend (attended changed to attend, made it another tense) victims of the plague during an outbreak in london remained healthy, whereas the English priests shunning the odiferous herb soon became (become changed to became) ill. - This statement shows that the action is already over, something in the past. Whereas became is like present continous. The french doctors are still attending and fit, and the english became sick .. an ongoing process.


The presence of ATTENDED makes it more appropriate to say 'BECOME'.

Anothe example :- The doctors noted that, atheletes who ran everyday, as a daily exercise keep healthy and those who do not, soon become sick.

The doctors noted that atheletes who run everyday, as a daily exercise, keep healthy and those who did not, soon became sick-
What do u think of it now.

I hope this is a little clear.

Regards
_________________

Giving another SHOT

HI Aonie

U are right. B does not satisfy the required criteria. My reasoning would have been if the BECOME is BECAME. And for your information, the BECOME was a typo error. It sould have been "became". I checked this same question in another site as well.

A user has mentioned that it is a typo error (which is quite possible, if the material is from gmat+).

Regards
_________________

Giving another SHOT

I must say this is a unique Q (if not annoying and silly), forget about it....so long as we know what the rules and standards are.

It is hoped (hopefully that we won't have typos, wrong answers etc in the real gmat....