Vivien Thomas, who had no formal medical training, in struggling again

Vivien Thomas, who ...(non defining clause), struggled against overwhelming odds to become X and eventually to receive X.

Furthermore, when you recognize the correct structure of the sentence you know it must be (B) or (E), since both have the correct 'to become', and voilà you have the 2-3 split! (E) is the correct answer. Cheers

good explanations...the OA is E.

OA is E.

Vivien Thomas, who had no formal training, struggled against overwhelming odds to become a cardiac surgeon and eventually to receive an honorary doctorate from JHU.

Could the answer choice D become a good contender if it were, "who, having had no formal medical training, struggled against overwhelming odds to become......."?

Verbal experts, need help.

Though i m not an expert but below is my take on this:

there is no verb for main sub Vivien Thomas.

If option D was modified as mentioned, then the structure of the sentence would become

Subject, non essential modifier, descriptive clause.

There would be no main verb as sujit2k7 mentioned.

Vivien Thomas, who had no formal medical training, in struggling against overwhelming odds, he became a cardiac surgeon and eventually to receive an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.
A) who had no formal medical training, in struggling against overwhelming odds, he became
Subject,modifier,modifier,Subject is awkward.
B) having had no formal medical training, in struggling against overwhelming odds to become
Sentence fragment with two back to back modifiers
C) who, having no formal medical training, he struggled against overwhelming odds in becoming
Subject who he struggled is awkward.
D) who, having had no formal medical training and struggled against overwhelming odds, became
Sentence fragment
E) who had no formal medical training, struggled against overwhelming odds to become
Correct

Option "D" is a run on sentence - look at this :

Vivien Thomas,who, having had no formal medical training and struggled against overwhelming odds, became a cardiac surgeon and eventually to receive an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.

The sentence is not complete. Also " and eventually to receive " is not parallel. It should be "became a cardiac surgeon and received" OR as in option "E" .

Meaning of sentence- Vivian thomas had no formal medical training. He struggled against overwhelming odds to become a cardiac surgeon and received eventually a doctorate from JHU.

A) Vivien Thomas, who had no formal medical training, in struggling against overwhelming odds, he became a cardiac surgeon and eventually to receive an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. Incomplete sentence- 'Vivian Thomas he became'
B) Vivien Thomas, having had no formal medical training, in struggling against overwhelming odds to become a cardiac surgeon and eventually to receive an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. Very weird sentence structure.
C) Vivien Thomas, who, having no formal medical training, he struggled against overwhelming odds in becoming a cardiac surgeon and eventually to receive an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. Vivian Thomas he struggled against- Incomplete sentence
D) Vivien Thomas, who, having had no formal medical training and struggled against overwhelming odds, became a cardiac surgeon and eventually to receive an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. Having had is not right. 'became' is not parallel to 'to receive'
E) Vivien Thomas, who had no formal medical training, struggled against overwhelming odds to become a cardiac surgeon and eventually to receive an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. Vivian thomas struggled against ...... 'to become' and 'to receive' are parallel.

E is the answer

Parallelism

Vivien Thomas, who…….., struggled against overwhelming odds to become X and eventually to receive Y.
A: “in struggling against overwhelming odds” makes no sense, “who had” and “struggling” are not parallel.
B, C, and D: the sentence structure is illogical. In C and D “who” has been placed illogically and awkwardly between two comas.
E: is the best choice as ‘who’ correctly modifies Vivien Thomas. “to become” and “to receive” are parallel.

Vivien Thomas, who had no formal medical training, in struggling against overwhelming odds, he became a cardiac surgeon and eventually to receive an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.

(A) who had no formal medical training, in struggling against overwhelming odds, he became - Vivien Thomas he became -- Subject subject verb -- Incorrect

(B) having had no formal medical training, in struggling against overwhelming odds to become - illogical sentence structure

(C) who, having no formal medical training, he struggled against overwhelming odds in becoming - Vivian Thomas he struggled against -- same as A

(D) who, having had no formal medical training and struggled against overwhelming odds, became - having had is incorrect ; parallelism issue - became and to receive are not parallel

(E) who had no formal medical training, struggled against overwhelming odds to become - Correct

Answer E

This question is based on Modifiers and Parallelism.

The construction of Option A is awkward. It consists of a subject followed by two modifiers placed one after the other which are then followed by an independent clause within which, parallelism is lacking.
The verb ‘became’ is not parallel to the infinitive ‘to receive’. So, Option A can be eliminated.

Option B is an incomplete sentence. It is made up of a subject and three modifiers, but no verb to complete the idea. So, Option B can be eliminated.

Option C has the redundant pronoun ‘he’. Since the relative pronoun ‘who’ is present in the sentence, there is no need for the personal pronoun ‘he’. The participle ‘becoming’ is inappropriate after the verb ‘struggled’. So, Option C can also be eliminated.

The verb form ‘became’ is not parallel to the infinitive ‘to receive’. As the last part of the sentence mentions what Vivien Thomas did after struggling against the odds, the verbs become and receive should be in parallel form. So, Option D can be eliminated.

The modifier “who had no formal medical training” modifies Vivien Thomas. The infinitives ‘to become’ and ‘to receive’ are parallel. Therefore, E is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

Got this correct, but still thing about (A) being a run on or is correct by being an absolute phrase?

Hello, lakshya14. There is no absolute phrase or run-on in the original sentence, but there are two subjects competing for space in the main clause.



The -ing phrase is simply a modifier that is interrupting the main clause. But what is the subject here? Is it Vivien Thomas or he? Either one would work fine on its own, but together, we get a main clause that effectively says,

Vivien Thomas he became a surgeon and to receive a doctorate.

Wow, what a mess. You can see the problems at both the beginning and end of the sentence. I want the infinitive to receive to be received to create parallel actions, but alas, we have to go by what is on the screen.

I hope that helps. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

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