daagh
Hello friends,
Starting from today, I will be posting a few questions on the three sections of GMAT verbal namely, SC,CR and RC in their relevant sub forums. .You can critique them from every angle including proof-reading. You may send in your suggestions to me either here or over PM and I shall study them intently for any possible corrections.
Your genuine critical appraisals will get a kudo; If you are however solving the question, then post them separately so that it may also fetch you kudos from members .
The best of these questions may one day become part of our
gmatclub tests So here we go with our launch starting with the first batch of SC questions
Amid the expression of religious creed and artistic manifestation of ecclesiastical thesis,
were wound the cluster of Byzantine classical arts, spread far and wide from Egypt and Arabia to the Russian mainland
(A were wound the cluster of Byzantine classical arts, spread
B) were wound the cluster of Byzantine classical arts, spreading
(C) was wound the cluster of Byzantine classical arts, which was spreading
(D) was wound the cluster of Byzantine classical arts, spread
(E)was wound the cluster of Byzantine classical arts, that had spread
OA and OE after 5 solutions
Dear
daagh,
With all due respect, my intelligent friend, I am not a fan of this question. The grammar it is testing is straightforward, and the OA Is quite clear.
I think the entire sentence is very awkward and ungrammatical. The whole opening phrase of the sentence uses a number of fancy words, but the intent is not clear. I know more than most people about medieval church history, and the phrase "
ecclesiastical thesis" is very awkward and unclear. The structure of "
Amid the expression of [conceptual region]" is unidiomatic and bizarre. The word "
cluster" seems a particularly coarse and gouache word to describe a refined collection of arts. It seems very clear that the author wanted to avoid using simply the "
Byzantine classical arts", the natural subject, in order to explore SVA issues in the question, so the author artificial included the words "
the cluster of" to tweak the SVA. Also, the main verb, "
wound", is a very bizarre and unidiomatic choice.
I like the subject matter, and I like the clarity of the grammatical choices among the answer choices. I think the overall sentence needs to be reworked.
Those are my thoughts.
Mike