Before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, the second of

Question

Before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, the second of Poland's Angevin rulers, thereby becoming King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania.

(A) Before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, the second of Poland's Angevin rulers, thereby becoming King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania.

(B) Before he converted to Christianity, married Jadwiga, the second ruler of Poland's Angevin, and became King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania.

(C) Before marrying Jadwiga, the second of Poland's Angevin rulers, thereby converting to Christianity and becoming King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila.

(D) Before Wladyslaw II converted to Christianity and married Jadwiga, the second ruler of Poland's Angevin, thereby becoming King of Poland, he was Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania.

(E) Before Wladyslaw II converted to Christianity and married Jadwiga, the second of Poland's Angevin rulers, thereby becoming King of Poland, he was Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila.

Interesting question - Has so many modifiers and commas, none of the answers seem correct. 
 Source:  GMAT Hacks - 091913

DmitryFarber · Accepted Answer

Hi Nitin,

What were you wondering about? If you're questioning the validity of the answer, I can vouch for it.

The main clause is "Wladyslaw II was known as Jogaila." When was he known by this name? "Before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga." Then we have two asides. One explains that Jadwiga was "the second of Poland's Angevin rulers" and the other explains that by marrying her, he became King of Poland. We also end with another modifier to Wladyslaw's name.

So we can read the full sentence this way, with the first modifier modifying the main clause, and the second modifier showing a result of the first modifier:

Before doing X, thereby doing Y, Wladyslaw II was known as Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania.

What is X? Converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga
Who is Jadwiga? The second of Poland's Angevin rulers.
What is Y? Becoming the King of Poland.

igotthis · Answer

Honestly, I used the process of elimination here. I read A and jumped into the other choices (Not the best way to do..w/o prethinking)
Though we definitely have a meaning issue here beside a modifier issue.

What the org sentence is trying to say is: Wladyslaw II became the king of Poland after marrying Jadwiga( second of Poland's Angevin rulers). But before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, he was known as Jogaila (Grand Duke of Lithuania)

B - Before he converted to Christianity, married Jadwiga, the second ruler of Poland's
 Angevin,  and  became King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as Jogaila, Grand 
 Duke of Lithuania.
The 'and' sounds like before converting he became the king of Poland and was Jogalia. But the statement actually says that he became the king of Poland   because  he married Jagwiga

C - Before marrying Jadwiga, the second of Poland's Angevin rulers, thereby converting to Christianity and becoming King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila.
This sounds like he became the king before he married Jadwiga and he converted to Christianity because of that.

D- Before Wladyslaw II converted to Christianity and married Jadwiga, the second ruler of 
 Poland's Angevin,  thereby becoming King of Poland,  he was Jogaila , Grand Duke of Lithuania. 
'he was Jogalia' as a stand alone phrase seems incorrect. It sounds like the second ruler of Poland's Angevin became King of Poland.
 thereby becoming King of Poland incorrectly modifies the second ruler of Poland's Angevin

E- Before Wladyslaw II converted to Christianity and married Jadwiga, the second of Poland's
 Angevin rulers, thereby becoming King of Poland,  he was Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila. 
This almost seems correct, but the statement ends in Jogalia! It's like saying: He was smart, Tom

P.S: IF the words are too confusing, you can shorten them. I translated Jadwiga and Jogalia to Jad and Jog so I could read faster!

nhanqtvn · Answer

(A) Before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, the second of Poland's 
Angevin rulers, thereby becoming King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as 
Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania. -->  OA

(B)  Before he converted  to Christianity, married Jadwiga, the second ruler of Poland's
Angevin, and became King of Poland,  Wladyslaw II was known  as Jogaila, Grand 
Duke of Lithuania.

(C) Before marrying Jadwiga, the second of Poland's Angevin rulers,  thereby converting 
to Christianity and becoming King of Poland,  Wladyslaw II was known as Grand Duke
of Lithuania, Jogaila.  (change meaning, convert and marry at the same time)

(D) Before Wladyslaw II converted to Christianity and married Jadwiga, the second ruler of 
Poland's Angevin, thereby becoming King of Poland,   he  was Jogaila , Grand Duke of Lithuania. (who is he? Wladyslaw or Jadwiga)

(E) Before Wladyslaw II converted to Christianity and married Jadwiga, the second of Poland's
Angevin rulers, thereby becoming King of Poland,  he  was Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila. (who is he? Wladyslaw or Jadwiga)

felipe0509 · Answer

"A) Before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, the second of Poland's 
Angevin rulers, thereby becoming King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as 
Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania."

Dont you think its ambigous this part:  Before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, the second of Poland's 
Angevin rulers . Could be also that modifier "Before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga" is modifying "the second of Poland's 
Angevin rulers"

baaniNitin · Answer

Hi Experts,
can anyone please help here .

Regards
Nitin

Mpuneet · Answer

Having gone through all the options, A is the correct one.
In B, ‘and became king of Poland’ implies that marrying Jadwiga and becoming king of Poland were two separate events. The comma denotes that the two clauses are independent.
C is improperly constructed and does not make sense. ‘thereby converting to Christianity’ modifies ‘marrying Jadwiga’, implying that Wladsylaw II converted to Christianity by marrying Jadwiga.
D ‘he was Jogalia’ should not be a standalone phrase. Rather than being joined by a comma ‘he was Jogalia’ and ‘Grand Duke of Lithuania’ should be joined by ‘the’.
E has only one error, at the very end. ‘Grand Duke of Poland, Jogalia’ is an improper format. It should be ‘Jogalia, Grand Duke of Poland’.

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

(A) Before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, the second of Poland's Angevin rulers, thereby becoming King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania.
Everything from the tenses and the architecture of words makes perfect sense

(B) Before he converted to Christianity, married Jadwiga, the second ruler of Poland's Angevin, and became King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania.
Here too Jadwiga is made the second ruler and Wladyslaw

(C) Before marrying Jadwiga, the second of Poland's Angevin rulers, thereby converting to Christianity and becoming King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila.
Here they are making Jadwiga the ruler and not Wladyslaw 2 .

(D) Before Wladyslaw II converted to Christianity and married Jadwiga, the second ruler of Poland's Angevin, thereby becoming King of Poland, he was Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania.
the tense doesn't converge in the right phase becoming married and converted isn't right

(E) Before Wladyslaw II converted to Christianity and married Jadwiga, the second of Poland's Angevin rulers, thereby becoming King of Poland, he was Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila.
It's never second rulers it shpuld be a single ruler , and he was known as Jogalia not the other way round

parasma · Answer

Before he converted to Christianity, married Jadwiga, the second ruler of Poland's Angevin, and became King of Poland, Wladyslaw II was known as Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania.

My observation is
It can be considered 3 actions list as following

Before he
1- Converted (simple past)
2- Married (simple past)
3- Became (simple past)

Then option B is grammatically correct.

How shall I know/judge/act/choose the answer option that GMAT expect me to answer A or B??  
Kindly help me to understand.
🙏🙏
 Bunuel

DmitryFarber

DmitryFarber · Answer

B cuts out the logical connection between the events. Converting allowed him to marry Jadwiga. By doing that, he became king (through marriage). He didn't marry her at one point and then, separately, become king, so the list doesn't work well.

Also, notice that most of the choices refer to her as an Angevin ruler. We don't have to know any history to do SC, but we can infer from this that Angevin describes a kind of ruler (in this case, a family). "Ruler of Angevin" sounds like she was a ruler of a place called Angevin, and that doesn't make a lot of sense or fit the meaning we are able to make out from the other choices.

Before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, the second of

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Before converting to Christianity and marrying Jadwiga, the second of

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