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605-655 Level|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|                        
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 18 Sep 2022, 04:32
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aashusuman1
GMATNinja Can you please explain why answer choice A is incorrect .
Is it only because of non idiomatic construction ?
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Hello aashusuman1,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option A incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “research (verb) + on”; please remember, when “research” is used as a verb, it requires no helping word and is followed directly by a noun. Further, Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase “James Baldwin's books...was living there”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 19 Nov 2022, 10:12
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Quote:
A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.

(A) on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there
(B) about the books James Baldwin wrote in France
(C) into James Baldwin's books written while in France
(D) on the books of James Baldwin, written while he lived in France
(E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France
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A relation between 'has taken' (present perfect) and 'lived' (past tense) looks absurd. Need experts' reply.
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 20 Nov 2022, 05:15
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TheUltimateWinner
Quote:
A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.

(A) on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there
(B) about the books James Baldwin wrote in France
(C) into James Baldwin's books written while in France
(D) on the books of James Baldwin, written while he lived in France
(E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France
A relation between 'has taken' (present perfect) and 'lived' (past tense) looks absurd. Need experts' reply.
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Hello TheUltimateWinner,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the two verbs act upon different nouns: the present perfect verb "has taken" acts upon the noun "professor", and the simple past tense verb "lived" acts upon the noun "James Baldwin".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 21 Nov 2022, 10:21
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Quote:
A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there.

(A) on James Baldwin's books that Baldwin wrote in France while he was living there
(B) about the books James Baldwin wrote in France
(C) into James Baldwin's books written while in France
(D) on the books of James Baldwin, written while he lived in France
(E) the books James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France
A relation between 'has taken' (present perfect) and 'lived' (past tense) looks absurd. Need experts' reply.

Hello TheUltimateWinner,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the two verbs act upon different nouns: the present perfect verb "has taken" acts upon the noun "professor", and the simple past tense verb "lived" acts upon the noun "James Baldwin".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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Kudos to you.
Hi all experts!
One more query as a curiosity that what if the choice E is written as below?
(E1) the books that were written by James Baldwin while he lived in France

Appreciating your help...
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 23 Nov 2022, 13:58
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Please help,

My question is does "he" used in option E clearly link back to James Baldwin? To me I found that "he" could either be James Baldwin or the professor.

Though I agree "research the books" sounds better than options B and C, B and C do not use the pronoun "he" and are more clear as to who lived in France at one point in time.

Thanks!!!
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 23 Nov 2022, 22:43
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Please help,

My question is does "he" used in option E clearly link back to James Baldwin? To me I found that "he" could either be James Baldwin or the professor.

Though I agree "research the books" sounds better than options B and C, B and C do not use the pronoun "he" and are more clear as to who lived in France at one point in time.

Thanks!!!
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This is a 'that clause' in which we have skipped writing 'that' because the referent of 'that' is the object of the clause.

... the books that James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France.

that clause - that James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France
It has two components - the main clause (James Baldwin wrote the books) and subordinate clause (while he lived in France). The subject of the subordinate clause refers to the subject of the main clause. It all makes sense. There is no ambiguity here.
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 24 Nov 2022, 18:43
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capsguy2018
My question is does "he" used in option E clearly link back to James Baldwin? To me I found that "he" could either be James Baldwin or the professor.
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As KarishmaB said, (E) has an implied THAT: "the books (that) James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France".

James Baldwin is the subject of the subordinate clause "that James Baldwin wrote while he lived in France". So James Baldwin is the closest possible antecedent and the first choice for HE.

But let's look at the meaning too. Suppose the 'HE' referred to the professor.
Then the sentence would mean that the professor was researching books that Baldwin wrote when the professor lived in France.

That a rather unexpected meaning! (Prof, how does it matter where YOU were living when Baldwin wrote the books?)


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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 25 Nov 2022, 04:30
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capsguy2018
Please help,

My question is does "he" used in option E clearly link back to James Baldwin? To me I found that "he" could either be James Baldwin or the professor.

Though I agree "research the books" sounds better than options B and C, B and C do not use the pronoun "he" and are more clear as to who lived in France at one point in time.

Thanks!!!
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Hello capsguy2018,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, there is a clear grammatical reason why "he" refers to "James Baldwin"; since "he" and "James Baldwin" are part of a modifying phrase that acts upon "books", "James Baldwin" is the most direct and logical referent for "he".

There may be some slight ambiguity in this regard, but even if we accept that ambiguity, it is still a far smaller flaw than the ones found in B and C, the only answer choices that avoid this ambiguity; remember, on GMAT SC, you must look for the best among the given answer choices, not a perfect answer choice.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 18 Jun 2023, 03:04
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Can't the 'he lived' refer to the professor as well?
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 18 Jun 2023, 17:39
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firepower
Can't the 'he lived' refer to the professor as well?
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This point has been discussed earlier in the chain, in the last two posts and in others too.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/a-professor- ... l#p3111957
https://gmatclub.com/forum/a-professor- ... l#p3112160
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 07 Jan 2024, 21:28
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How is research a verb here? To +verb is always as verbal and it shows an intent to do the action but not the occurence of actual action.

In every solution research is considered as a verb, where is my understand incorrect?
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 13 Jan 2024, 09:01
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atisoizain
How is research a verb here? To +verb is always as verbal and it shows an intent to do the action but not the occurence of actual action.

In every solution research is considered as a verb, where is my understand incorrect?
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Yes, "to + [verb]" is technically a verbal (infinitive) and not a verb. But it's okay to refer to "research" alone (without the "to") as a verb, since it is in fact the [verb] piece in the "to + [verb]" construction.

Luckily, we don't have to label such things on the GMAT, and these distinctions shouldn't really impact how you approach the question.
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A professor at the university has taken a sabbatical to research on 29 Jun 2025, 09:40
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