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655-705 Level|   Comparisons|   Idioms/Diction/Redundancy|   Parallelism|   Pronouns|                           
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 17 Nov 2019, 21:41
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Everything Else can be easily eliminated, B and D remains.
I'm surprised No One has talked about this;
The Major issue with "B" is the Ambiguous comparison if we go into the meaning,

(B) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning was considered among her contemporaries as a better poet than her husband, she was later overshadowed by his success.

There is an ambiguity - and B gives two meaning.


Meaning 1: Browing was considered better among her contemporaries than her husband was considered among his contemporaries.
Meaning 2: Browing was considered as a better poet than her husband.

Below is the LInk of Egmat Articles, explaining this amibguity:
https://e-gmat.com/blogs/ellipses-in-co ... ing-verbs/

I would further like experts view on this. Thank You
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 18 Nov 2019, 00:46
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hero_with_1000_faces

Meaning 1: Browing was considered better among her contemporaries than her husband was considered among his contemporaries.
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Hi, there is no his contemporaries anywhere in the sentence and hence, cannot be assumed.

It's just her contemporaries.
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 18 Nov 2019, 01:15
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hero_with_1000_faces

Meaning 1: Browing was considered better among her contemporaries than her husband was considered among his contemporaries.
Hi, there is no his contemporaries anywhere in the sentence and hence, cannot be assumed.

It's just her contemporaries.
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I am sorry I respectfully disagree.

The structure is such that it creates ambiguity. You can refer to link of egmat article, it may give you an idea of what I am talking about.
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 18 Nov 2019, 07:47
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hero_with_1000_faces

I am sorry I respectfully disagree.

The structure is such that it creates ambiguity.
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Hi! I respectfully disagree with your disagreement:).

By your logic, the following sentence:

Peter's parents are more affectionate to Peter than to Maria.

Can be interpreted as:

Peter's parents are more affectionate to Peter than (Maria's parents are affectionate) to Maria.

That would not be correct.

The only way to interpret the original sentence would be:

Peter's parents are more affectionate to Peter than (Peter's parents are affectionate) to Maria.
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 29 Nov 2019, 00:43
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Skywalker18
To eliminate option B, do we use
1. idiom(Consider X Y) ?
2. Comparison issue - she was later overshadowed by his success? (We also have a similar construction in option A, though A is incorrect because Although.. should be followed by EBB)

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , MagooshExpert , GMATGuruNY , VeritasPrepBrian , MartyTargetTestPrep , DmitryFarber , VeritasKarishma , generis , EducationAisle , other experts - please enlighten
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Hi Skywalker18,

I'd go with the meaning issue that you mention in (2), as I try to start with something other than idiomatic usage (especially consider X Y!). By the way, option A also has the better poet than. The better poet is fine, as is a better poet than, but the better poet than is incorrect.
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 30 Nov 2019, 01:00
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hero_with_1000_faces There is absolutely no way to read B the way you describe in #1. You are referring to ellipsis, but that can't be what's going on here. The simplest reason is that "among her contemporaries" is in the wrong place for that. It is clearly describing how contemporaries view her in comparison to her husband. Also, ellipsis can only go so far. If we have a specific modifier such as "by her contemporaries," it can't be repurposed to mean something totally different. For instance, I can say "She earns more money than I do," with "do" standing in for the act of making money. But if I say "She makes more money selling insurance than I do," then we seem to be comparing our relative earnings from selling insurance. It would be odd to say this if that's not my job. Even if our jobs are similar, we can't just swap another concept in. For instance, if we are in different fields, I can't say "She is more prominent in her field than I am," and expect someone to fill in that this means "than I am in mine."
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 30 Nov 2019, 01:03
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Skywalker18

Both are good reasons. "Consider as" is not a favored idiom, but more importantly, she wasn't overshadowed by his success. She can be overshadowed by him, or her success can be overshadowed by his success, but we don't want to mix those.
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 05 Dec 2019, 07:18
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EMPOWERgmatVerbal
Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow it down to the correct choice quickly! First, here is the original question with any major differences highlighted in orange:

Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.

(A) Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.
(B) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning was considered among her contemporaries as a better poet than her husband, she was later overshadowed by his success.
(C) Later overshadowed by the success of her husband, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry had been considered among her contemporaries to be better than that of her husband.
(D) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.
(E) Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry was considered among her contemporaries as better than her husband, but her success was later overshadowed by his.

While there is a lot we could focus on, there are 2 main areas we can start with:

1. How Browning is compared to her husband (Idioms)
2. How Browning was overshadowed by her husband (Parallelism)

Let's start with #1 on our list: how the sentence compares Browning to her husband. This is an issue of idiom structure with comparisons. We need to make sure that each sentence follows the general rules of how to compare two items:

X is better than Y
X is considered Y
X is considered to be Y

Let's take a close look at each sentence and determine if each uses the proper idiom formats. If not, let's eliminate them:

(A) Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.

considered...to be = OKAY
she was...better than her husband = OKAY

(B) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning was considered among her contemporaries as a better poet than her husband, she was later overshadowed by his success.

considered...as = WRONG
Browning was...better than her husband = OKAY

(C) Later overshadowed by the success of her husband, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry had been considered among her contemporaries to be better than that of her husband.

considered...to be = OKAY
Browning's poetry had been...better than that of her husband = OKAY

(D) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.

she was considered... = OKAY
she was...the better poet = OKAY

(E) Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry was considered among her contemporaries as better than her husband, but her success was later overshadowed by his.

considered...as = WRONG
Browning's poetry...better than her husband = OKAY

We can eliminate options B & E because they use one or both idioms incorrectly. Now that we have it narrowed down to 3 options, let's tackle #2 on our list. We need to make sure that the items being compared in each sentence are parallel!

(A) Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.

This is INCORRECT because it's not idiomatically correct to say that Browning is "the better poet than" her husband. It's best to say she is "a better poet" than her husband, or just say that between the two of them, she is "the better poet."

(C) Later overshadowed by the success of her husband, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry had been considered among her contemporaries to be better than that of her husband.

This is INCORRECT because it contains a misleading modifier. Who/what was overshadowed by the husband's success? The wife! It doesn't make sense to compare the husband's success to the wife's poetry - that's not parallel. The sentence needs to clearly contrast the husband's success with the wife's success to be parallel.

(D) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.

This is CORRECT! It uses parallel structure to compare Browning's success to her husband's success, and it correctly handles the comparison of their abilities as poets by saying she is "the better poet."


There you have it - option D is the correct choice!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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Hi EMPOWERgmatVerbal,

Thanks for your explanation. I have a question regarding the use of "consider". I saw other user mentioned that "consider" can only be used in certain ways. Quote"The correct idiom is Consider x y and not consider x as y or consider x to be y or consider x as y or any other form." I saw you treated these as correct in your explanation. I want to confirm with you the correct idiom of "consider". Thanks!
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 06 Dec 2019, 17:33
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EMPOWERgmatVerbal
Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one thing at a time, and narrow it down to the correct choice quickly! First, here is the original question with any major differences highlighted in orange:

Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.

(A) Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.
(B) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning was considered among her contemporaries as a better poet than her husband, she was later overshadowed by his success.
(C) Later overshadowed by the success of her husband, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry had been considered among her contemporaries to be better than that of her husband.
(D) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.
(E) Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry was considered among her contemporaries as better than her husband, but her success was later overshadowed by his.

While there is a lot we could focus on, there are 2 main areas we can start with:

1. How Browning is compared to her husband (Idioms)
2. How Browning was overshadowed by her husband (Parallelism)

Let's start with #1 on our list: how the sentence compares Browning to her husband. This is an issue of idiom structure with comparisons. We need to make sure that each sentence follows the general rules of how to compare two items:

X is better than Y
X is considered Y
X is considered to be Y

Let's take a close look at each sentence and determine if each uses the proper idiom formats. If not, let's eliminate them:

(A) Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.

considered...to be = OKAY
she was...better than her husband = OKAY

(B) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning was considered among her contemporaries as a better poet than her husband, she was later overshadowed by his success.

considered...as = WRONG
Browning was...better than her husband = OKAY

(C) Later overshadowed by the success of her husband, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry had been considered among her contemporaries to be better than that of her husband.

considered...to be = OKAY
Browning's poetry had been...better than that of her husband = OKAY

(D) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.

she was considered... = OKAY
she was...the better poet = OKAY

(E) Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry was considered among her contemporaries as better than her husband, but her success was later overshadowed by his.

considered...as = WRONG
Browning's poetry...better than her husband = OKAY

We can eliminate options B & E because they use one or both idioms incorrectly. Now that we have it narrowed down to 3 options, let's tackle #2 on our list. We need to make sure that the items being compared in each sentence are parallel!

(A) Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better poet than her husband, later Elizabeth Barrett Browning was overshadowed by his success.

This is INCORRECT because it's not idiomatically correct to say that Browning is "the better poet than" her husband. It's best to say she is "a better poet" than her husband, or just say that between the two of them, she is "the better poet."

(C) Later overshadowed by the success of her husband, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry had been considered among her contemporaries to be better than that of her husband.

This is INCORRECT because it contains a misleading modifier. Who/what was overshadowed by the husband's success? The wife! It doesn't make sense to compare the husband's success to the wife's poetry - that's not parallel. The sentence needs to clearly contrast the husband's success with the wife's success to be parallel.

(D) Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.

This is CORRECT! It uses parallel structure to compare Browning's success to her husband's success, and it correctly handles the comparison of their abilities as poets by saying she is "the better poet."


There you have it - option D is the correct choice!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.


Hi EMPOWERgmatVerbal,

Thanks for your explanation. I have a question regarding the use of "consider". I saw other user mentioned that "consider" can only be used in certain ways. Quote"The correct idiom is Consider x y and not consider x as y or consider x to be y or consider x as y or any other form." I saw you treated these as correct in your explanation. I want to confirm with you the correct idiom of "consider". Thanks!
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Thanks for your question el1234!

"Consider X as Y" is incorrect, but "Consider X to be Y" is fine to use. "Consider X Y" is also fine to use.

The problem with this sentence is that you have to find the correct idiom to convey the meaning you're looking for. In this case, "consider X to be Y" is okay because it still conveys the intended meaning.

I hope that helps!
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 24 Dec 2019, 02:50
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Hi in option choice D, shouldnt it be Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband's, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet?

Husband's and not husband. If not, what is the reasoning for the same?
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 24 Dec 2019, 08:07
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Kritisood
Hi in option choice D, shouldnt it be Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by that of her husband's, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet?

Husband's and not husband. If not, what is the reasoning for the same?
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The problem, Kritisood, with opting for a possessive husband's is that that of already draws the comparison. The correct sentence is expressing the notion that Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by the success of her husband...

Without that of, we would indeed need a possessive apostrophe to compare success to success:
Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by her husband's success...

When you stick the two together, though, what you are really saying is that
Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was later overshadowed by the success of her husband's success...

I think you would agree that this last sentence is nonsensical and redundant. How can her husband's success be doubly successful? I hope that helps resolve your query. If not, feel free to follow up with another question.

Good luck with your studies.

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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 01 Jun 2020, 06:38
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Based on the meaning alone I chose B over D.

The problem with D is the possessive pronoun rule which I thought would be greater of the 2 errors present in each of the options(B has idiom error) whereas D has this as mentioned.

GMATNinja - can you kindly help out here with the explanation?
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 09 Jun 2020, 22:49
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daagh
Pronoun reference is a vexatious issue. There are worse cases in which one can find many suitors for the antecedence for a given pronoun. So it is not possible to convincingly dismiss pronoun ambiguity or antecedence that easily.

Even so, in the given case, there is not even an element of equivocation in the given question. Elizabeth is the only female antecedent in the prompt and the pronoun ‘she’ can only refer to that lady. In other words, this is the way GMAC wants us to avoid too much nuancing on pronoun reference.

One may note that all other choices are idiomatically unacceptable as per GMAT norms.
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Hi Daagh or any other expert,

There was another official question in which "considered to be" was used in all the options. Hence, how do we know which is a "Bigger error" which warrants rejection?
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 09 Jun 2020, 23:12
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Hi Daagh or any other expert,

There was another official question in which "considered to be" was used in all the options. Hence, how do we know which is a "Bigger error" which warrants rejection?
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Clearly, if the same flaw appears in all the choices, you don't have to worry about that flaw, because it's not a decision point if it appears in all the choices.

Regarding your question, when faced with a Sentence Correction question with five flawed choices, the move is to compare issues and, hopefully, find a clear difference.

For instance, if one choice has a subject-verb agreement error, while another uses "considered to be," the one with the subject-verb agreement error is blatantly and unarguably incorrect, while the one that uses "considered to be" has a minor flaw, and in fact, in using "considered to be," uses an expression that many people use often.

So, in that case, there is a clear difference between the two issues, and you'd choose the one that uses "considered to be" over the one with the subject-verb agreement error.

Generally, you can find that kind of difference between the flaws.

If, somehow, you are forced to choose between choices that are flawed in ways that are not clearly different in terms of egregiousness, then you have to do your best to figure out which the writer of the question felt to be the better choice. Doing so is not always easy, but generally, there's some aspect of the wording of one choice or a theme in the question that tips you off to the fact that a certain choice is the one that the question's writer considered correct.
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 09 Jun 2020, 23:50
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shanks2020
Hi Daagh or any other expert,

There was another official question in which "considered to be" was used in all the options. Hence, how do we know which is a "Bigger error" which warrants rejection?
Clearly, if the same flaw appears in all the choices, you don't have to worry about that flaw, because it's not a decision point if it appears in all the choices.

Regarding your question, when faced with a Sentence Correction question with five flawed choices, the move is to compare issues and, hopefully, find a clear difference.

For instance, if one choice has a subject-verb agreement error, while another uses "considered to be," the one with the subject-verb agreement error is blatantly and unarguably incorrect, while the one that uses "considered to be" has a minor flaw, and in fact, in using "considered to be," uses an expression that many people use often.

So, in that case, there is a clear difference between the two issues, and you'd choose the one that uses "considered to be" over the one with the subject-verb agreement error.

Generally, you can find that kind of difference between the flaws.

If, somehow, you are forced to choose between choices that are flawed in ways that are not clearly different in terms of egregiousness, then you have to do your best to figure out which the writer of the question felt to be the better choice. Doing so is not always easy, but generally, there's some aspect of the wording of one choice or a theme in the question that tips you off to the fact that a certain choice is the one that the question's writer considered correct.
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Thanks a lot Marty for your detailed explanation. How often do you think or based on your experience, would one have to go through such situations?
I have recently come across a series of exceptions, which otherwise i would reject straightaway, for eg. which modifying a noun by jumping over a verb, If used with a present perfect, etc.
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 10 Jun 2020, 05:13
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Thanks a lot Marty for your detailed explanation. How often do you think or based on your experience, would one have to go through such situations?
I have recently come across a series of exceptions, which otherwise i would reject straightaway, for eg. which modifying a noun by jumping over a verb, If used with a present perfect, etc.
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I'm not 100 percent sure, but maybe 1 out of 50 SC questions has a "correct" answer that is flawed in some minor but definable way that a grade school teacher would have an issue with and that would make a GMAT test-taker wonder whether the answer should be eliminated.

That said, in many many SC questions, the "correct answers" are rather poorly constructed.

That said, some of the things you are calling "exceptions," such as a modifier jumping a verb, are uncommon structures rather than flawed structures.
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 10 Jun 2020, 07:40
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shanks2020
Thanks a lot Marty for your detailed explanation. How often do you think or based on your experience, would one have to go through such situations?
I have recently come across a series of exceptions, which otherwise i would reject straightaway, for eg. which modifying a noun by jumping over a verb, If used with a present perfect, etc.
I'm not 100 percent sure, but maybe 1 out of 50 SC questions has a "correct" answer that is flawed in some minor but definable way that a grade school teacher would have an issue with and that would make a GMAT test-taker wonder whether the answer should be eliminated.

That said, in many many SC questions, the "correct answers" are rather poorly constructed.

That said, some of the things you are calling "exceptions," such as a modifier jumping a verb, are uncommon structures rather than flawed structures.
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Thanks Marty.
Can you please suggest any tip which can help in identifying these uncommon structures such as "which jumping over a verb to modify the noun in that clause" and "IF followed by present perfect and not simple present" ?
A tip which can prevent me from rejecting a correct choice straightaway?
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 10 Jun 2020, 10:44
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shanks2020
MartyTargetTestPrep
That said, some of the things you are calling "exceptions," such as a modifier jumping a verb, are uncommon structures rather than flawed structures.

Thanks Marty.
Can you please suggest any tip which can help in identifying these uncommon structures such as "which jumping over a verb to modify the noun in that clause" and "IF followed by present perfect and not simple present" ?
A tip which can prevent me from rejecting a correct choice straightaway?
Show more
You can be wary of being too rule driven when you answer questions. Especially if you are not 100 percent sure that something is "against the rules," don't be too quick to eliminate a choice.

Also, be ready to go back and de-eliminate a choice if you don't find one that works. You may have to go with something that seems to break the rules.

Of course, by answering more SC questions, you will see more of these uncommon structures and become prepared for them.
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 10 Jun 2020, 11:15
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shanks2020
MartyTargetTestPrep
That said, some of the things you are calling "exceptions," such as a modifier jumping a verb, are uncommon structures rather than flawed structures.

Thanks Marty.
Can you please suggest any tip which can help in identifying these uncommon structures such as "which jumping over a verb to modify the noun in that clause" and "IF followed by present perfect and not simple present" ?
A tip which can prevent me from rejecting a correct choice straightaway?
You can be wary of being too rule driven when you answer questions. Especially if you are not 100 percent sure that something is "against the rules," don't be too quick to eliminate a choice.

Also, be ready to go back and de-eliminate a choice if you don't find one that works. You may have to go with something that seems to break the rules.

Of course, by answering more SC questions, you will see more of these uncommon structures and become prepared for them.
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Marty, I have been following this dialogue as it has unfolded, and I could not have said this last bit any better. Exceptions can be frustrating sometimes, but separating answer choices into those you know are wrong and those you simply have reservations about is one of the best ways to increase accuracy, and practice helps narrow the pool of reasonable choices to (typically) no more than a 50/50.

Thank you for your thoughtful responses. The whole community benefits by reading them.

- Andrew
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Although she was considered among her contemporaries to be the better 21 Jun 2020, 18:54
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pratyush86
Based on the meaning alone I chose B over D.

The problem with D is the possessive pronoun rule which I thought would be greater of the 2 errors present in each of the options(B has idiom error) whereas D has this as mentioned.

GMATNinja - can you kindly help out here with the explanation?
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Sorry that I'm late to the party on this! Lots of good discussion on this thread lately -- props to Andrew and Marty in particular.

pratyush86, as some others have said here, the GMAT is pretty fickle when it comes to following our so-called grammar "rules". But the GMAT is ALWAYS interested in clarity of meaning.

So with that in mind, which makes more sense: that Elizabeth Barrett Browning's success was overshadowed by [the success] of her husband? Or that Elizabeth Barrett Browning herself was overshadowed by the success of her husband?

The more logical meaning is that her SUCCESS was overshadowed by her husband's success (Can a person herself be overshadowed? If so, what does that even mean?). But if we're blindly following convenient "rules", we overlook significant meaning issues.

For more on the fact that there are painfully few absolute rules that ALWAYS apply on GMAT SC, check out this post.

I hope that helps a bit!
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