{"id":7535,"date":"2011-06-27T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=7535"},"modified":"2011-06-15T19:31:52","modified_gmt":"2011-06-16T03:31:52","slug":"kaplan-gmat-sample-problem-sentence-correction-verb-tenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/kaplan-gmat-sample-problem-sentence-correction-verb-tenses\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaplan GMAT Sample Problem: Sentence Correction, Verb Tenses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kaplan<\/a> The majority of grammatical errors that appear in the sentence correction questions<\/a> on the GMAT fall into six categories. Today\u2019s question focuses on verb errors; when a verb appears in a sentence correction problem, make sure it is correct in both tense and number.<\/p>\n

Problem:<\/strong>
\nWolfgang von Kempelen, an 18th-century Hungarian baron, claimed to have invented a chess-playing automation he called \u201cThe Turk\u201d; this mechanical illusion, which was actually operated by a hidden chess master who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin as well as many other well-known challengers, were destroyed in an 1854 fire.
\n(A)\twhich was actually operated by a hidden chess master who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin as well as many other well-known challengers, were
\n(B)\twhich a hidden chess-master actually operated, defeating Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin as well as many other well-known challengers, were
\n(C)\twhich was actually operated by a hidden chess master who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin as well as many other well-known challengers, was
\n(D)\twith a hidden chess master operating it who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin as well as many other well-know challengers, were
\n(E)\twhich defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin, as well as many other well-known challengers, by hiding a chess master inside who actually operated it, was<\/p>\n

Solution:
\nWhen faced with a lengthy underlined portion, do not try to assess every part of it at once. Instead, look for one specific error at a time. The problem above uses a common GMAT tactic to hide the verb error it contains. After the semicolon, the subject of the sentence is \u201cthis mechanical illusion,\u201d which is singular. This is followed by a modifying phrase that describes the subject. It is only after this modifying phrase that the verb \u201cwere\u201d appears. However, \"were\" is plural, which does not match our singular subject. Thus, any answer choice that maintains the verb \u201cwere\u201d is incorrect. Therefore, we can eliminate choices (A), (B) and (D).<\/p>\n

Now that we are down to just choices (C) and (E), we want to look for an error in one of these that allows us to eliminate it. When we examine choice (E), we find that it introduces an error into the modifying phrase. In both choices (C) and (E) the word \u201cwhich\u201d refers to the illusion, but (E) implies that the illusion defeated players. Because the chess master, and not the illusion, defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin, (E) is incorrect and can be eliminated.<\/p>\n

This leaves answer (C) as the only choice remaining, which is the correct answer. <\/p>\n

~Bret Ruber
\nhttps:\/\/www.kaptest.com\/gmat<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The majority of grammatical errors that appear in the sentence correction questions on the GMAT fall into six categories. Today\u2019s question focuses on verb errors; when a verb appears in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,558,243,719,735],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-kaplan-blog","category-blog","category-sentence-correction-gmat","category-verbal-gmat-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7535"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7537,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7535\/revisions\/7537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}