The defense lawyer and witnesses portrayed the accused as a victim of

'being' is used to describe a temporary ongoing action, not a state.
e.g.
'The tree is being uprooted' showing the action of uprooting.
'His life was uprooted' is the state of his life due to factors X, Y and Z. It is not an action.

Why would you anyway bother with 'being' when you have a perfectly valid absolute phrase using past participle?
Also discussed here: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2014/0 ... -the-gmat/

Hi VeritasKarishma I want to understand here, how can we be so sure that "uprooted" is used as participle here and not as past tense (main verb) ?

To be used as a verb, we need "was uprooted" because his life did not uproot; it was uprooted. So we need to use passive. Since 'was' is not used here, it means it is not a verb, but a modifier.

Hi VeritasKarishma,

I just wonder which noun/action that the modifier 'his life ...' modifies.? and because of that I choose C as I think the underline part cannot be a modifier, but a continued idea, so 'and' is required.
Thanks

It is an absolute phrase. I have discussed absolute phrases along with this question in my post here: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2014/0 ... -the-gmat/

Hello,

I choose (E) while taking the practice test. I did not know about "absolute phrases" so I didn't think about selecting (A) at all. After reading all the explanation, I still do not understand why (E) is incorrect. A colon is used to introduce lists in most cases but can be used to introduce a sentence fragment that clarifies the independent clause before the colon. I believe that "his life being uprooted ..." is a clarification to how the accuser was portrayed as a victim so I thought that the use of the colon made sense here. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated!

Thank you

The correct answer (A) in this sentence correction problem contains an unusual modifier structure (called an absolute phrase) so many students are hesitant to pick it. Anytime you place a noun followed by a participle (“his life uprooted”) at the beginning or end of the sentence, it is a structure known as an absolute phrase, and it is used to give more information about the sentence as a whole. Consider this example of another absolute phrase and you will realize that you do see this commonly in language: Her arms folded across her chest, Mary was clearly upset by the decision. However even if you don’t like (A), the other answer choices are all fatally flawed so you must pick it!
In (B) the “and his life uprooted..” is not properly connected to the rest of the sentence and seems to be its own incomplete clause/thought.
In (C), the same problem exists and it is made even worse with the addition of the unnecessary “being”.
In (D) what follows the semi-colon is not a complete sentence and in (E) the colon is not the correct way to link the portion at the end to the rest of the sentence (and “being” is again incorrect and unnecessary).
Answer is (A).

Always remember the portion after the "comma AND" structure should be an independent clause.
If the portion after the "comma AND" structure can't stand alone as an independent clause - mostly that choice is incorrect

hope this helps!

VeritasKarishma - do you agree?

No, do not depend on such "rules" (of thumb). Some style guides suggest using the oxford comma in lists too.

I need to buy apples, oranges and bananas.
I need to buy apples, oranges, and bananas.
Both are acceptable.

What is acceptable to GMAT and what is not is also dynamic. Hence, our only option is to look at the 5 given options and then decide the best one.

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