Although trained in Sweden, the renowned doctor has spent most of her

Per the meaning of the sentence - all the verbs can't be at the same level (even though they seem parallel grammatically). This situation brings the meaning into picture. According to the sentence, the renowed actor, though she trained in Sweden, she has spent most of her life in africa - How?

This bit is represented by verbing forms after the clause, highlighting extra information. (All the verbing forms are parallel in D)
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Hi laraterra, clearly the confusion arose between option A & D

Let's read the sentence with option A

"The doctor has spent most of her life in Africa, grew up in Kenya ...., attended prep school in Namibia, and did graduate work in the Congo and Zimbabwe."

The author intends to explain "most of her life" in subsequent portion. Thus participle structure [growing / having grown] is better to help us understand how she spent in Africa rather than just listing series of activities in simple past. Here sequence of tense also contradicts between present perfect and simple past.

Furthermore, meaning of the sentence demands "verb+ing" modifier for mentioning the additional information of how he spent life in Africa. Thus growing...., attending.... & doing.... serves the purpose.

Hope it's clear

Hi,

Agree with Katzz..

"Growing" righlty modifies the preceeding clause and then g"rowing,attending,doing..." all look parallel.

Regards,
Dom.

Why A is wrong? Why should be used growing?

A. grew up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, did - Incorrect - Parallelism error

B. has grown up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, has attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, did - Incorrect - Parallelism error + there should have been a comma after 'and'

C. having grown up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, having done - Incorrect - Reason similar to option C and usage of having makes the sentence awkward.

D.growing up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attending prep school in Namibia, and, after college and medical school in Sweden, doing - Correct - All elements are parallel. Comma is used correctly to separate the elements.

E. growing up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attending prep school in Namibia, and, after college and medical school in Sweden, she did - Incorrect - Again the elements are not parallel.

Answer: D

Though trained in Sweden, the renowned doctor has spent most of her life in Africa, grew up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, did graduate work in the Congo and Zimbabwe.

A. grew up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, did
--> Has spent,grew,attended,did ; parallelism issue :Incorrect

B. has grown up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, has attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, did
Has spent,Has grown,has attended,did ; parallelism issue :Incorrect
C. having grown up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, having done
IC,-ing Modifier,Has attended,did ; parallelism issue :Incorrect
D.growing up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attending prep school in Namibia, and, after college and medical school in Sweden, doing
IC,-ing Modifier1,-ing modifeir2, Ing modifier3 : Correct
E. growing up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attending prep school in Namibia, and, after college and medical school in Sweden, she did
IC,modifier1,modifier2,IC : 2 IC's joined by ',' Incorrect structure


Pls. comment.

In this type of parallelism/sentence construction problem, you need to isolate what structures need to be parallel.

To start, you need to use the participial structure (growing or having grown) - what follows the word “Africa” is helping us understand better how she spent most of her life on the continent. These are not separate things – she did not spend most of her life in Africa, AND grew up in Kenya, AND attended prep school in Namibia…these are just modifiers to help you understand how she has spent most of her life in Africa.

Also, there is an illogical mixing of the simple past and present perfect tenses in series that follows. (C) contains a bungled series – you cannot say “having grown, attended, and having done”. It would have to be “having grown, attended, and done” or “having grown, having attended, and having done.”

(D) uses the proper “ing” participial structure and is perfectly parallel: “growing…attending…and doing”.

(E) has another bungled series: “growing, attending, and she did”.

Correct answer is (D).
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The highlighted part of the sentence is the main part of the sentence, rest all are modifies/qualifiers , providing additional information...

Although trained in Sweden, the renowned doctor has spent most of her life in Africa,

grew up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children,
attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden,
did graduate work in the Congo and Zimbabwe.

Hence correct Answer must be (A), errors in other options highlighted in Red....
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Veritas prep OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

In this type of parallelism/sentence construction problem, you need to isolate what structures need to be parallel. To start, you need to use the participial structure (growing or having grown) - what follows the word “Africa” is helping us understand better how she spent most of her life on the continent. These are not separate things – she did not spend most of her life in Africa, AND grew up in Kenya, AND attended prep school in Namibia…these are just modifiers to help you understand how she has spent most of her life in Africa. Also, there is an illogical mixing of the simple past and present perfect tenses in series that follows. (C) contains a bungled series – you cannot say “having grown, attended, and having done”. It would have to be “having grown, attended, and done” or “having grown, having attended, and having done.” (D) uses the proper “ing” participial structure and is perfectly parallel: “growing…attending…and doing”. (E) has another bungled series: “growing, attending, and she did”.

Correct answer is (D).

There are two issues in option D
First, there is no main verb (so either the question is wrong or the answer)
Second, everything is part of a list that is modifying the renowned doctor (if I am not wrong), in the non-underlined portion we have spent which is verb, so we should have a verb in parallel

and option A addresses to all of these issues.

In option D, the second clause after “, and” is not independent. Does not have a subject. Am I missing something?

Posted from my mobile device

Hi rvarora,

You've correctly identified the has spent as a verb. That has spent is also the "main verb" (for the subject the renowned doctor).

Although trained in Sweden, the renowned doctor has spent most of her life in Africa, growing up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attending prep school in Namibia, and, after college and medical school in Sweden, doing graduate work in the Congo and Zimbabwe.
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Some people feel that in a list of three or more items, there should be a comma (an Oxford comma) just before the and.

... the renowned doctor has spent most of her life in Africa, growing up in Kenya, attending prep school in Namibia, and doing graduate work in the Congo and Zimbabwe.

This is applicable to any list, not just a list of clauses.

Also, I don't advise test takers to eliminate options on the basis of the presence or absence of an Oxford comma. This is a style call, and is thus not very reliable.
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(A) grew up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, did
"grew up...","attended ... " and "did ..." describe how she spent most of her life in Africa. There are not independent actions. Hence, they must described in "verb-ing" form. In addition to that, a connector such as "and" is missing

(B) has grown up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, has attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, did
Similar to option A, "has grown ...", "has attended", and "did graduation" - describe separate actions.
Missing connector.

(C) having grown up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, having done
"having done ..." describes an action that happened before a subsequent action was done.
Loss of parallelism between "attended" and "after college" - requires a verb before "after college"

(D) growing up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attending prep school in Namibia, and, after college and medical school in Sweden, doing
"Verb-ing" correctly describes how she spent her life
"And + ," - correctly connects the parallel elements - "growing up", "attending" and "doing"
No flaws

(E) growing up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attending prep school in Namibia, and, after college and medical school in Sweden, she did
"and" introduces a new ID clause starting with "she did" - even if neglect the meaning error, the two elements "growing up ..." and "attending" are not joint with "and"

Correct answer - D

A humble request – Please give KUDOS if you like the response.
Let us first dissect the sentence.
Although trained in Sweden, This is the dependent clause
the renowned doctor has spent most of her life in Africa, - This is the independent clause. This is in present perfect tense.
grew up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, - This is in simple past tense.
attended prep school in Namibia, - This is in simple past tense.
and after college and medical school in Sweden,
did graduate work in the Congo and Zimbabwe. - This is in simple past tense.
This is a list of activities and the tenses are being tested in this SC question.


(A) grew up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, did
All tenses are in past tense an hence is incorrect choice we need something in present tense.

(B) has grown up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, has attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, did
this sentence has present perfect tense, present perfect tense and past tense. Hence incorrect.

(C) having grown up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attended prep school in Namibia, and after college and medical school in Sweden, having done
simple present, simple past and simple present. Hence incorrect
If you are still reading my post please hit the KUDOS button.

(D) growing up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attending prep school in Namibia, and, after college and medical school in Sweden, doing
Present continuous tense for all three list had been used. This is the correct choice. All the tenses are in the same form.

(E) growing up in Kenya as the eldest of a missionary couple’s six children, attending prep school in Namibia, and, after college and medical school in Sweden, she did
Present continuous tense, Present continuous tense and past tense has been used. Hence incorrect.
Thank you for reading the post. Request you to please hit the KUDOS button.
Answer is D.

Isn't growing being used a noun modifier? It is referring to the actor and hence should be placed right next to it? Can someone help me understand where am I wrong?

egmat EMPOWERgmatVerbal GMATNinja

Great question MooneeyTunes!

Verb+ing modifiers that have a comma before them modify the preceding clause - not only the closest preceding noun. Since the phrase "growing up" denotes an action, we can safely assume the person who performed the action is the actor (who does show up in the preceding clause).

I hope that helps! Make sure to tag us again if you have any other questions, and we'll be happy to help!
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