After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of

Question

After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), which was newly discovered, he had reached  for a sheet of paper, crumpled it, and said, “It looks like that—beyond the mountains, more mountains.”

(A) After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), which was newly discovered, he had reached

(B) On being asked to describe the new discovery of the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti) by Queen Isabella, Admiral Columbus, reaching

(C) Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the newly discovered island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), then he reached

(D) When asked by Queen Isabella to describe the newly discovered island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), Admiral Columbus reached

(E) After Queen Isabella had asked Admiral Columbus to describe the discovery of the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), he had reached

Not sure about the use of 'he had reached'.. Pls explain the choice you make..

daagh · Accepted Answer

My observations

Many have termed A, C and E as pronoun error- choices obviously implying that the pronoun 'he' has been improperly used, as the subject of the clause is a queen and a female. IMHO, not so necessarily. In a sentence such as this, it is the logic that the is the ultimate decider. You see, 'he' is quite ok since it cannot refer to any other male than Columbus and the reference of a masculine pronoun to as to a female noun is naturally disqualified logically.
 
In an example as follows: Jack and Jill rode on her bike; the 'her' can refer to Jill only . it is unwieldy to assume that it could have been his bike or their joint ownership bike. As long as we have a clear reference, let's be done with it and proceed forth.

Then, the question is as to what is wrong with those choices after all? Let's see now:

(A) After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), which was newly discovered, he had reached ----- the past perfect for a later event is improper, while an earlier event is tensed in simple past. Tense error as many have pointed out.

(B) On being asked to describe the new discovery of the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti) by Queen Isabella, Admiral Columbus, reaching ---- Who discovered Hispaniola; the choice suggests that the queen discovered it ---out for changing the original meaning.

(C) Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the newly discovered island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), then he reached ---  This is a run on.

(D) When asked by Queen Isabella to describe the newly discovered island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), Admiral Columbus reached ---  All these phenomena are happening simultaneously, So the use of when and the simple past tense for all the events is appropriate.

(E) After Queen Isabella had asked Admiral Columbus to describe the discovery of the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), he had reached ---  use of 'had' to tense both an
earlier and a later event is improper

So now, we might see, why D is the correct choice.

jeeteshsingh · Answer

After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), which was newly discovered, he had reached  for a sheet of paper, crumpled it, and said, “It looks like that—beyond the mountains, more mountains.”
(A) After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), which was newly discovered, he had reached
 had reached is wrong when you compare the same with asked

(B) On being asked to describe the new discovery of the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti) by Queen Isabella, Admiral Columbus, reaching
 On being is not correct... even reaching is wrong..

(C) Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the newly discovered island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), then he reached
 then he reached is wrong..... then isn't required.

(D) When asked by Queen Isabella to describe the newly discovered island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), Admiral Columbus reached
 Correct - verbs are correct and no pronoun error is sited.

(E) After Queen Isabella had asked Admiral Columbus to describe the discovery of the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), he had reached
 had asked and had reached make no sense together.... we need to have a sequence correction here

cyrilmalaki · Answer

After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), which was newly discovered, he had reached for a sheet of paper, crumpled it, and said, “It looks like that—beyond the mountains, more mountains.”
(A) After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), which was newly discovered,  he had reached 
(B) On being asked to describe the new discovery of the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti) by Queen Isabella, Admiral Columbus,  reaching 
(C) Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the newly discovered island of Hispaniola (now Haiti),  then he reached 
(D)  When asked by Queen Isabella to describe the newly discovered island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), Admiral Columbus reached 
(E) After Queen Isabella had asked Admiral Columbus to describe the discovery of the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti),  he had reached

Not sure about the use of 'he had reached'.. Pls explain the choice you make..

teaserbae · Answer

daagh  Sir,
Can you please brief how C is run on, isn't then a conjuction joining both the sentences ?

daagh · Answer

teaser
Which is conjunction joining the first IC starting with Queen and the second IC, 'then he reached'? I see only a comma.

Krabhay · Answer

a. Whole sentence is in simple past tense. Hence, there is no need of ‘had’ in the sentence.
 b. We can’t change the sentence to present tense and the correct part following the sentence is in past tense.
 c. Need of conjunction ‘then’ is not required. 
 d. Correct use of tense. Seems correct.
 e. Simple past tense should be used instead of Past perfect tense.
 Hence, d is the answer.

ouslam · Answer

After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), which was newly discovered, he  had reached  for a sheet of paper ,  crumpled  it, and  said , “It looks like that—beyond the mountains, more mountains.”

There is another method to know which sentence is correct. Since outside the underlined sentence , "crumpled" and "said" are used in past simple and we know that we need parallel structures , so only C or D could be correct. C has a run on like  daagh  said. The right answer is D

VerbalBot · Answer

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After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of

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After Queen Isabella asked Admiral Columbus to describe the island of

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