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If Marcel Prousts memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste

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angel2009
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If Marcel Prousts memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste [#permalink] New post   Updated on: 11 Jun 2019, 02:27
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If Marcel Proust’s memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste of a Madeleine, he might never have been moved to write Remembrance of Things Past.

A. had not been stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine
B. had not been stirred by means of the felicitous taste of a madeleine
C. were not to be stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine
D. were not to be stirred by the taste of a felicitous madeleine
E. should not be stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine

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I thought it is subjunctive but OA reveals it is not. Why it can't be a subjunctive?
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A

Originally posted by angel2009 on 18 Apr 2010, 12:13.
Last edited by Bunuel on 11 Jun 2019, 02:27, edited 1 time in total.
Renamed the topic and edited the question.
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gmatisnothard
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Re: If Marcel Prousts memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste [#permalink] New post   19 Apr 2010, 11:32
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If Marcel Proust’s memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste of a Madeleine, he might never have been moved to write Remembrance of Things Past.
had not been stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine
had not been stirred by means of the felicitous taste of a madeleine
were not to be stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine
were not to be stirred by the taste of a felicitous madeleine
should not be stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine

IF past perfect + COMMA +Perfect conditional:

Note the conditionals:
1. If +Present +Present
2. If +Present +Future
3. If +Past simple +Would/Could/Might +Verb
4. If +past perfect+Perfect conditional.

The given sentence follows "if +past perfect+,+Perfect conditional."
Only A meets the criterion.

Answer is A.
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nverma
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Re: If Marcel Prousts memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste [#permalink] New post   18 Apr 2010, 13:11
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angel2009 wrote:
If Marcel Proust’s memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste of a Madeleine, he might never have been moved to write Remembrance of Things Past.


had not been stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine
had not been stirred by means of the felicitous taste of a madeleine
were not to be stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine
were not to be stirred by the taste of a felicitous madeleine
should not be stirred by the felicitous taste of a madeleine

I thought it is subjunctive but OA reveals it is not. Why it can't be a subjunctive?


Let me try..

Subjunctive mood is used in the following cases..

to advise
to ask
to command
to demand
to desire
to insist
to propose
to recommend
to request
to suggest
to urge

Sometime "should" is also used as Subjunctive, but only in British English..!!! GMAT..American..!!

"were" can be used for wishes.., but in the given question, there are no wishes granted..or made..!!

Out of A and B, A is short and concise.. IMO A.

OA plz.
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Re: If Marcel Prousts memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste [#permalink] New post   19 Apr 2010, 09:53
It is very tempting to pick an option which has "were" because we have read so many times that if there is "IF...." use "were" in the sentence.

But this sentence is not a subjunctive mood.

The sentence says....

If X's memory had not been stirred by Y, he might never have been moved to write Z

I pick A.

B is wordy.
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Re: If Marcel Prousts memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste [#permalink] New post   02 May 2010, 18:53
4. If +past perfect+Perfect conditional.

The given sentence follows "if +past perfect+,+Perfect conditional."
Only A meets the criterion.
[/size]
Answer is A.[/quote]

I agree with you about the structure.
But not only A meets the criterion. B also follows the same structure.
Between A and B:
I guess that "by means of" is really awkward in B. Answer B is wordy compared to A.
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Re: If Marcel Prousts memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste [#permalink] New post   03 Mar 2012, 10:26
all choices are wrong. although A seems the best choice, it too is grammatically incorrect because 'he' is ambiguous. it cannot refer to marcel proust’s memory.
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Re: If Marcel Prousts memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste [#permalink] New post   23 Jan 2016, 12:01
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Keeping aside the possessive noun + non-possessive pronoun bungling for a while, we may see that this belongs to the third conditional of "an if clause with a past perfect tense and the main clause with a conditional perfect tense"—“
"if Marcel Proust’s memory had not been stirred --- he might not have been moved’. So A and B survive. However, B is wordy with the unnecessary intrusion of the phrase ‘means of’
This is not subject to a subjunctive mood because the 'if clause' is not a hypothetical case; It has actually happened and is real. Therefore, there is no need to put it the unreal hypothetical mode.
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Re: If Marcel Prousts memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste [#permalink] New post   18 Aug 2019, 12:23
Hi Experts Can you please explain why B is discarded. I chose B as it shows that medicine has been used as a mean.
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Re: If Marcel Prousts memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste [#permalink] New post   23 Mar 2023, 11:56
Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

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Re: If Marcel Prousts memory had not been stirred by the felicitous taste [#permalink]
23 Mar 2023, 11:56
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