12 Days of Christmas GMAT Competition - Day 4: Until his death in 1972

Question

12 Days of Christmas GMAT Competition with Lots of Fun

Until his death in 1972, Edmund Wilson  solidified his reputation as one of the country's most versatile literary figures.

(A) solidified his reputation as one of the country's most versatile literary figures.

(B) had solidified his reputation as one of the country's most versatile literary figures.

(C) solidified his reputation to be one of the country's most versatile literary figures.

(D) had solidified his reputation as being one of the country's most versatile literary figures.

(E) was solidifying his reputation as being one of the country's most versatile literary figures.

Jainam24 · Accepted Answer

Had is used to denote some action that preceded another action but here there is no other action that logically needs to be preceeded 
So B & D are out on account of Verb Tense error 
E is out because of being 
To be is an incorrect usage for C 
Hence by POE A is the correct ans

JoshAtDreamScore · Answer

Solution:
a) solidified his reputation as one of the country's most versatile literary figures.
b) had solidified his reputation as one of the country's most versatile literary figures.
c) solidified his reputation to be one of the country's most versatile literary figures.
d) had solidified his reputation as being one of the country's most versatile literary figures.
e) was solidifying his reputation as being one of the country's most versatile literary figures.

This question confuses many because the “until  ” may sound like it’s setting up a past perfect, which requires had verb’ed. However, “until” does not mean “before” in the sense of past perfect. Rather, it means “up to”. Think of it as the difference between “less than or equal” versus simply “less than”. Past perfect requires the strict inequality “less than”, i.e. “before”. Not “up to and including”.
Another reason this construction confuses people is it looks like the setup for a present perfect have + verb’ed. if the sentence said “until now”, then “have + verb’ed” would be appropriate.
We could have a past progressive “was solidifying” pair with “until  ”, but we have to make sure that nothing else in that answer choice is broken.

A: Correct
BD: As mentioned, both of these use the past perfect tense, which is incorrect.
C: Unidiomatic:  reputation to be  →  reputation as 
DE: Unidiomatic:  reputation as being  →  reputation as 
E: Note that E has an acceptable verb tense, but is incorrect because of the incorrect idiom.

Pranayyerra · Answer

solidified is an ed modifier, EW solidified something? doesn't make sense
Eliminate A and C
E is wrong because of tense error 
between B and D
had solidified is correct, reputation as versatile figure is wrong 
reputation being a versatile figure 
So option D

(A) solidified his reputation as one of the country's most versatile literary figures.

(B) had solidified his reputation  as  one of the country's most versatile literary figures.

(C)  solidified  his reputation to be one of the country's most versatile literary figures.

(D) had solidified his reputation  as being one of the  country's most versatile literary figures.

(E)  was solidifying  his reputation as being one of the country's most versatile literary figures.

sj296 · Answer

Two issues: 
1) Tense: Simple past should be used 
2) Idiom:  Solidified..... as  is correct usage.

=> 
(A)  solidified  his reputation  as  one of the country's most versatile literary figures............Looks fine

(B)  had   solidified  his reputation  as  one of the country's most versatile literary figures.....................................Past perfect tense is being used. Reject it.

(C)  solidified  his reputation  to be  one of the country's most versatile literary figures...........................................Solidified ...to be is not correct usage. Reject it.

(D)  had   solidified  his reputation  as being  one of the country's most versatile literary figures............................................................Both tense and idiom usages are wrong. Reject

(E)  was  solidifying his reputation  as being  one of the country's most versatile literary figures...................................Same as D.

IMO OA should be A

Bunuel · Answer

Dreamscore Official Explanation

A: Correct

BD: Use past tense for a completed action: had solidified -> solidified

C: Incorrect usage with reputation: to be -> as

DE: Awkward wording: unnecessary "being"

AndrewN · Answer

Hello, everyone. Let me preface this post by pointing out that the Dreamscore Official Explanation has been posted. I am not aiming to step on anybody's toes. At the same time, I am seeing a few questions in the thread, so I thought I would provide my own take on the answer choices in an effort to assist the community. To that end, I have prepared a screenshot of the question with a few markings. (Lest anyone think I was aping the OA or OE, note the timestamp. I have better things to do than to attempt to doctor an image for a Christmas competition.)

Attachment:

Screen Shot 2021-12-20 at 06.35.26.png [ 126.53 KiB | Viewed 2966 times ]

Note that in the non-underlined portion of the sentence, death is a noun, NOT a verb. It is possible to rewrite the sentence in verb form, as in, Until he died... but that is not what we see here. As such, we cannot claim that the sentence presents two verb forms. If you have trouble wrapping your head around the role of the introductory phrase, move it to the end—Edmund Wilson [did something] until his death. Second, the phrase one of the country's most versatile literary figures is common to all answer choices, so we can effectively ignore it. We just need the right idiom to work with reputation. That said, how about we take a closer look?

Choice (A) is correct because the simple past tense solidified tells us what Edmund Wilson did during his lifetime. Also, the correct idiom is [built a] reputation as, so there is nothing off in this one.

Choice (B) is incorrect because the past perfect is used incorrectly without another simple past verb elsewhere in the sentence.

Choice (C) is incorrect because the idiom solidified his reputation to be is flat-out wrong. Even a parallel sentence, perhaps one discussing a ruler, would use become instead of be, as in, The king unified his kingdom to become the absolute authority.

Choice (D) is incorrect because the past perfect is again unwarranted, and reputation as being is idiomatically unsound. In fact, being adds nothing to the idiomatic construct that reputation as does not already convey.

Choice (E) is incorrect because it inserts the same superfluous being that we saw above in (D). You might be wondering about the past continuous was solidifying. Although it might seem strange to think of someone tirelessly working on solidifying his reputation right up to his death, the grammar and implied meaning allow for it. (No one is reasonably picturing a baby boy working on his image as a literary figure.) Look for the easiest targets first.

Perhaps that clarifies a matter or two for a few folks. I wish everyone a happy competition. Thanks to the question-writers at Dreamscore for contributing the question.

- Andrew

Shikhar22 · Answer

Hi Andrew. Can we not view the phrase 'Until his death in 19.." as a time stamp in the past and, in that case, the action of solidifying his image took place before that time stamp, and in that case, the use of past perfect in B) could be acceptable?

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

SohGMAT2020 · Answer

Hi  AndrewN

One very similar question. When we use a past time marker such as "by", we need to use past perfect right?
Eg. By the time Edmund Wilson died in 1972, he had solidified his reputation as....

So, why in this case "Until" cannot do the same function?

I was confused because I thought that "until" and "by" does the same function in terms of meaning.

BTW Thanks a lot for taking the time to clarify our doubts. Really appreciate it.

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  Shikhar22  and  SohGMAT2020 . Remember, first, that your goal in SC is not to chase could-be-true answers. Rather, you want to get behind the option that is hardest to argue against. Is it possible for  until  to function in the same capacity as  by ? Sure, both words can serve as prepositions. But if you see  Until his death...  with no other contextual information to lean on (as in another sentence in a paragraph of text that is written in the simple past), you have no reason to jump straight into the past perfect. Even with  by , you should look for contextual clues to make an informed decision. Consider:

a)  By 2001, the Artificial Intelligence technology featured in the film  2001: A Space Odyssey   had  not  come  to fruition.

b)  By 2001, he  was  penniless.

In the former sentence, the past perfect fits that context better than would the simple past  did , as though a prediction had been made at some unstated point in the past; in the latter sentence, the simple past makes more sense than  had been , unless the author meant to convey that the person in question was no longer penniless. In short, you should seek to read a sentence with meaning in mind. There are few absolutes in grammar and semantics because language is a natural extension of our biological selves: it gets added to or taken away from over time, meanings shift, exceptions pop up. (Every language I have ever laid eyes on has exceptions, whether irregular verbs, inconsistent application of honorifics, arbitrary assignment of gender pronouns, or any of a number of other features.)

- Andrew

JoshAtDreamScore · Answer

A: While you are correct that "solidified" could be a past participle modifier, in this sentence, "solidified" is simply the past tense. 
E: The past progressive "was solidifying" is actually ok. The problem is the unidiomatic "reputation as being"

thelastskybender · Answer

ExpertsGlobal5   GMATNinja   KarishmaB 
I know that option A is correct. But I don't understand how option B is wrong. Past perfect requires either a time marker or an even marker, and here we have a nice 'Until his death in 1972' phrase indicating the end of an action. Is it that the GMAT prefers past simple to past perfect?

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  thelastskybender ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the use of the word "Until" implies that "his death" and Edmund Wilson solidifying his reputation took place simultaneously; in other words, that Wilson continued the action of solidifying his reputation until the point in time when he died. Thus, the use of past perfect tense is incorrect.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

thelastskybender · Answer

I really appreciate the response.

Do you mean to imply that using "had solidified" as opposed to just "solidified" would change the meaning, implying that solidification was complete and not still occurring at the time when EW passed away? Am I getting this right?

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