Before the seventeenth century, melancholy was regarded to be a diseas

Question

Before the seventeenth century, melancholy was regarded  to be a disease caused by an excess of black bile in the body and one  characterized by delusions, hysteria, distemper, and paralysis.

A. to be a disease caused by an excess of black bile in the body and one

B. to be a disease, one caused by an excess of black bile in the body and

C. a disease, an excess of black bile in the body caused it, and it was

D. as a disease, being caused by an excess of black bile in the body and

E. as a disease caused by an excess of black bile in the body and

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ExpertsGlobal5 · Accepted Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Idioms + Grammatical Construction + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• "considered" does not require a conjunction or a helping word/phrase; “consider/considered” is always followed directly by the noun, and the similar word "regarded" must be followed by the conjunction "as"; correct usages: Jack is “considered a math genius” or Jack is “regarded as a math genius”.
• Semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses.
• “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

A:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “regarded to be”; please remember, "regarded" must be followed by the conjunction "as". Further, the sentence formed by Option A uses the needlessly wordy phrase “and one characterized by delusions, hysteria, distemper, and paralysis”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy; this phrase is redundant, as “one” can be deleted without a loss of clarity.

B:  Trap. This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “regarded to be”; please remember, "regarded" must be followed by the conjunction "as".

C:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “regarded + noun”; please remember, "regarded" must be followed by the conjunction "as". Further, Option C incorrectly uses a comma to join the independent clauses “melancholy was regarded a disease” and “an excess of black bile in the body caused it”; please remember, semicolons and the “comma + conjunction” construction are used to link two independent clauses; commas are used to link an independent clause with a dependent one; comma cannot be used to join two independent clauses.

D:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the word “being”, leading to awkwardness and redundancy; please remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

E:   Correct.  This answer choice correctly uses the idiomatic construction “regarded as”. Further, Option E avoids the grammatical construction error seen in Option C, as it features only one independent clause. Besides, Option E is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Considered" vs "Regarded As" on the GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEybAMdaPvM

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

jaisonsunny77 · Answer

i think that (E) is the correct answer.

In (E), if you split the parallelism, you get two independent clauses:

Independent clause #1: melancholy was regarded as a disease caused by an excess of black bile in the body

and

Independent clause #2: melancholy was regarded as a disease characterized by delusions, hysteria, distemper, and paralysis.

Both these independent clause make sense.  So, IMO, (E) is the right answer.

Aman1204 · Answer

In my Opinion E is the answer.

POE:
A- "...caused by an excess of black bile in the body and one characterized". In here, "Caused ... and One characterized.." is not parallel

B- This sentence is grammatically correct, but the meaning in the sentence "One caused by an excess of black bile in the body and one characterized" is not clear.

C- usage of "Regarded as" is preferred over "regarded a"

D- Not parallel

E- Correct

AshutoshB · Answer

Before the seventeenth century, melancholy was regarded to be a disease caused by an excess of black bile in the body and one characterized by delusions, hysteria, distemper, and paralysis.

A. to be a disease caused by an excess of black bile in the body and one

B. to be a disease, one caused by an excess of black bile in the body and

C. a disease, an excess of black bile in the body caused it, and it was

D. as a disease, being caused by an excess of black bile in the body and

E. as a disease caused by an excess of black bile in the body and

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Show Answer

Official Answer

E

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AbhishekDhanraJ72 · Answer

i thought in E it should be as a disease as caused by an excess.... why as ...X... as rule not applied here??? is it a too silly question to ask???

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi AbhishekDhanraJ72 , There's no problem with your question.

This sentence is not about a comparison ( as... as ). Instead, that as is for regarded . That is, we'd want to go with regarded as , not regarded to be . X is regarded as Y. X is regarded to be Y .

ChiranjeevSingh · Answer

Here's the   official explanation   provided by the GMAC for this question:

The sentence tells us that prior to the seventeenth century melancholy was regarded as a disease. There were two associated beliefs concerning melancholy: (1) it was caused by an excess of black bile; (2) it had as its symptoms delusions, hysteria, distemper, and paralysis. These beliefs can be correctly expressed by parallel modifying phrases conjoined by  and.

Option A:  Two flaws disqualify this answer choice: the unidiomatic pairing of  to be  with  regarded  and the disruptive and unnecessary insertion of  one .

Option B:  This answer choice is disqualified by the use of  to be  rather than  as  following  regarded  and the unnecessary insertion of  one .

Option C:  This answer choice incorrectly represents the claims about bile and the supposed characteristics of melancholy as if they are currently accepted facts rather than centuries-old beliefs no longer regarded as true. This version fails to clearly represent these claims as part of the pre-seventeenth-century view of melancholy. Furthermore, the wording  was regarded a disease  is unidiomatic;  was regarded as a disease  is the correct expression.

Option D:  As with answer choice C, this version can be read as endorsing the pre-seventeenth century views about the causation and symptoms of melancholy. This reading would result from taking the phrase  being caused … body … and paralysis  as modifying the subject of the sentence,  melancholy.

Option E:  Correct. The parallel phrases  caused … body  and  characterized … paralysis  modify  disease  and are correctly conjoined by  and . The preposition  as  is the correct usage with  regarded.

The correct answer is E.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Before the seventeenth century, melancholy was regarded to be a diseas

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Before the seventeenth century, melancholy was regarded to be a diseas

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