It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of the Washington

I try... A for me

a)It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963
that it moved into the first rank of American newspaper, and it was under her command
that the paper won high praise

b)It was only after Katharin Graham's becoming publisher of The Wasington Post in 1963
that it moved into the first rank of American newspaper, and under her command it had
won high praise ->unnecessary change of tense

c)Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963, and only after that
did it move into the first rank of American newspapers, having won high praise under her command -> having won, modifier problem

d)Moving into the first rank of American newspaper only after Katharine Graham became
its publisher in 1963, The Washington Post, winning high praise under her command
-> missing main verb

e)Moving into the first rank of American newspaper only after Katharine Graham's becoming
its publisher in 1953, The Washington Post won high praise under her command -> tense problem, also change the meaning of the original sentence (emphasize Katharine's importance)

Well guyz the reasons why option A is the best choice are Logical Predication and Parallelism.

Parallelism: It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and it was under her command that the paper won high praise for its unrelenting reporting of the Watergate scandal.

Moreover, because of the logical predication the sentence reads correctly without unnecessary usage of words such as 'becoming' and 'moving'

Hope the explanation helps!!

IMO A by POE

(A) It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and it was under her command that the paper won high praise for its unrelenting reporting of the Watergate scandal. - No issues , looks good
(B) It was only after Katharin Graham's becoming publisher of The Wasington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspaper, and under her commandt it had won high praise
(C) Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963, and only after that
did it move into the first rank of American newspapers, having won high praise under her command
(D) Moving into the first rank of American newspaper only after Katharine Graham became
its publisher in 1963, The Washington Post, winning high praise under her command - Missing the information of Watergate Scandal and moreover the sentence is awkward
(E) Moving into the first rank of American newspapers only after Katharine Graham's becoming its publisher in 1963, The Washington Post won high praise under her command. Same issue as D

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Explaining why E is not correct.

It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and it was under her command that the paper won high praise for its unrelenting reporting of the Watergate scandal.

Choice E is incorrect for two reasons. Firstly, it somewhat distorts the intended meaning of the sentence by taking away the emphasis. The original sentence clearly says that The Washington Post became the leading newspaper only after KG took charge of it and it was during her tenure only that the paper won high acclaims for its unrelenting reporting of the Watergate scandal.

Choice E removes this emphasis. Per this choice, the sentence means that The Washington Post won high praises for its unrelenting reporting of the Watergate scandal under KG’s command. By the way, the newspaper moved to first place after KG became the publisher. This point comes as additional information in the sentence. This is certainly not the intended meaning of the sentence.

Also if you compare “after KG’s becoming” with “after KG became”, the latter is better, clearer and more direct. So for these two reasons Choice E is not correct.

Hope this helps.
Shraddha

With answer (A), which is the correct answer, one thing I think that can throw many of is the first 'it was.' Clearly the use of 'it' in this sense does not require an antecedent. Given the proximity of the next 'it', however, one may think that the two 'its' do not refer to the same thing. Nonetheless, the phrase 'it was' should be treated differently from the 'it' in '...that it moved.' This 'it' clearly refers to the Post. The next 'it' in the 'it was...' maintains parallelism with the first 'it was.' Finally the last 'its' refers back to the Post. Quite a lot of 'its.' Hopefully, 'it' will not throw you next time .

B) Verb Tense Problem: Usage of past perfect implies that before Katharine Graham became the newspaper's editor, the newspaper won the prize!

C) Tense problem with modifier: 'having ....' as a modifier is one tense back from the original sentence, causing similar issue as in B
'only after that': GMAT does now allow such ambiguous usage of demonstrative pronouns; notice that there is no suitable noun that we can think of as an antecedent of 'that' here
Also, we need a comma before the second 'and'

D) a Fragment!

E) 'Katharine Graham's becoming' seems less preferable than the clause used in A: 'after Katharine Graham became'

The opening modifier is also too long.
Perhaps, also, 'Moving ...' is not a correct modifier, since this action is not a continuous one.

Hi daagh , the right answer is marked as A but option uses "IT" for two different things in this question. Is this a correct usage?

Thanks in advance!

neeraj609, there is no problem with "it" in A because it is only used once as a typical pronoun. In the other two cases ("It was only. . . it was under . . . "), "it" is used as part of a phrase that introduces a modifier. Think of it this way: Under what circumstances did the paper win praise? Under the command of Katherine Graham. So "It was under her command that the paper won high praise." "It" is not referring to a noun at all, but to a set of circumstances.

It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of the Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and it was under her command that the paper won high praises for its unrelenting reporting of the Watergate scandal.

(A) It was only after Katharine Graham became publisher of the Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and it was under her command that the paper won high praises.

Correct : Parallelism

(B) It was only after Katharine Graham's becoming publisher of The Washington Post in 1963 that it moved into the first rank of American newspapers, and under her command it had won high praises

--> use of 'had' is wrong . Incorrect
use of 'had' twist meaning . Washington post won high praises before it came under Katharine.

(C) Katharine Graham became publisher of The Washington Post in 1963, and only after that did it move into the first rank of American newspapers, having won high praise under her command

Subject : It is singular & Verb : move is plural
Incorrect

(D) Moving into the first rank of American newspapers only after Katharine Graham became its publisher in 1963, The Washington Post, winning high praise under her command

Modifier, noun , modifier construction : Incorrect

(E) Moving into the first rank of American newspapers only after Katharine Graham's becoming its publisher in 1963, The Washinton Postwon high praise under her command

no antecedent for "her"

Experts pls comment

Hello rishabhdxt,

You have presented a very detailed analysis of this official question. Great job there.

However, I would like to adjust your approach towards a few answer choices. So let's begin.



It is true that in Choice A, the two clauses joined by and follows the identical structure and hence maintain perfect parallelism, I hope you understand that this criterion is not a must for two elements to be parallel.

A choice that conveys the intended meaning in correct grammar with parallelism less perfect than in Choice A can be a contender for the correct choice.

But yes, this choice indeed is correct because it is logical and grammatical and clearly conveys the intended meaning.



See, parallelism wise, this choice also works. But it has the very evident error that you have correctly mentioned in your analysis.



I am afraid your reason to reject this answer choice is not correct. Please note the verb for the subject it is did move. So there is no SV number agreement error in this choice.

This choice is incorrect because of the usage of the modifier having won high praise. The modifier having verb-ed has a very specific usage. In modifying a clause, it presents the action done prior to the modified action in the main clause. For example:

1. Having finished his breakfast, Joe went to play tennis.

In the above-mentioned sentence, Joe first finished his breakfast and then went to play tennis. The sentence will convey the same meaning if we change the place of the having verb-ed modifier.

2. Joe went to play tennis, having finished his breakfast.

Both the sentences 1. and 2. convey the same meaning.

With the usage of having won high praise after the action did move, Choice C suggests that The Washington Post first won the praise and then moved to the first rank. This certainly is not the intended meaning.



Once again, your reason for rejecting this answer choice is not correct.

The opening verb-ing noun modifier Moving into... correctly modifies the subject of the following clause The Washington Post. But there is no verb for the subject The Washington Post.



Your analysis for this choice is also incorrect. The antecedent for the pronoun her is Katharine Graham's. Since her is a possessive pronoun, it can definitely refer to the possessive noun Katharine Graham's.

Just replace Katharine Graham's with her in this choice, and you will see that the sentence still conveys the same meaning.

This choice is incorrect because the expression Katharine Graham's becoming is a little awkward.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Hi Shraddha,

The explanation is really helpful:)

Can you please cover one more reason pointed out by some folks to eliminate option C.
'that' part in option C
Few have pointed out that 'that' antecedent is ambiguous
That is also present in A

If you can elaborate on this?

Posted from my mobile device

Hello akshata19,

Thank you for your appreciation. Means a lot.

I will be more than happy to help you resolve your doubt.

Yes, it is true that there is an error in Choice C pertaining to the usage of that.

The word that in Choice C has been used as a demonstrative pronoun that must be followed by the noun it refers to. For example:

1. Currently, I am working on a project, and this project is very important to me.

2. Some year ago, I found a very old pen in my attic; and that pen, I found out later, belonged to me great-grandfather.

In both the above-mentioned sentences, this and that respectively have been used as a demonstrative pronoun that are followed by the nouns they refer to.

But this is not the case with the usage of that in Choice C.

Firstly, that is not followed by any noun.

Secondly, that in this choice seems to refer to the action of Graham becoming the publisher of the Washington Post in 1963. This is incorrect because a pronoun can never refer to an action.

However, in Choice A, that has been used as a connector and not a pronoun. Hence, it need not refer to any noun entity in the sentence.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

Is the usage of her for Katharine Graham's correct in the options?

There is no problem with using 'her' and 'Graham's' in the options. 'Her' is a possessive pronoun here (not an object pronoun), and Graham's is a possessive noun. Hence, they can go together

egmat , AjiteshArun , MagooshExpert , GMATNinja

I am still not clear why "having high won praise" be wrong modifier. Explanation says that



But I don't understand why can't "The Washington Post first won the praise and then moved to the first rank" be the intended meaning.

Please help

I don't think that having won high praise is necessarily wrong here, although it does complicate the meaning by implying that the high praise bit could be the reason for the move.

Take C out for the awkward construction and ambiguity that the that creates.

daagh
In of your posts I read that a pronoun can refer to only antecedent in one sentence. But in A "it " works as a placeholder IT and also refers to The Washington Post .... Is it right ... Please explain, seems I am confusing sth.