Being a United States citizen since 1988 and born in Calcutta in 1940,

KarishmaB GMATNinja

After reading all the explanation, I still don't understand why being and having been are incorrect in D
(D) Being born in Calcutta in 1940 and having been a United States citizen since 1988, author Bharati Mukherjee - hold
Can you please help to understand the usage of "being" and "having been"?
Also would like to understand difference in meaning btw C & D.

Thanks for your time!

Sneha2021
We usually use "being" to communicate a temporary situation.

He is a brat.
He was being a brat yesterday evening. - means he is not a brat. He was just behaving like a brat at that time.

Being born in 1940 - doesn't make sense. The modifier should read "Born in 1940, the author ..."
It tells us when she was born.

Also, "having been a US citizen for 20 years, she has forgotten her native constitution ..." makes sense. It shows that after this happened, that happened. There is a connection between the two actions. Because she has been a US citizen for a long time, she has forgotten her native constitution.

But "having been a US citizen since 1988, she has lived in England" makes no sense. How is her US citizenship responsible for her living in England?

(C) on the other hand, separates the two related but different ideas.

Born in Calcutta in 1940, author Bharati Mukherjee became a United States citizen in 1988;
she has lived in England and Canada, and ...

Clean and clear. Hence (C) is correct.

hi GMATNinja
would you please further clarify? I've read this question over and over times, I have not recognized other splits expect "being" is awful .

IMO, being is incorrect when we use "since 1988", perfect past "having been" is more appropriate.

have a nice day.

Dear experts,

I read all comments and many comments talked about "reason" or "cause-effect".

Generally, when either past participle or present participle comes before comma : ___V.ed/V.ing___, Subj. Verb.....
Past participle or Present Participle will modify subject to provide more information about subject, right? It doesn't need to be "cause and effect" related to the verb or main sentence.

Pls, correct if I'm wrong.

Thank you in advance

When a comma-separated __ING modifier precedes a clause, it should describe a background circumstance, or an already-ongoing action or state, that has obvious relevance to whatever is described in the main clause.
Examples:
— Background circumstance: Having been harassed in the city's main park, Smith was loath to return there.
— Already-ongoing action: Coming home from school, the wind blew me off my bike.

An __ED modifier, on the other hand, can just give random extra description; there aren't really any restrictions on the relationship between this type of modifier and the content of the following clause.
E.g., Invented in Italy in the tenth century, pizza was not commonly found in Australia or New Zealand until ANZAC soldiers brought it home on their return from World War II.

Hi Ron,

What does "coming home from school" refer to in the highlighted sentence above? "the wind" or "me" ?

Being a United States citizen since 1988 and born in Calcutta in 1940, author Bharati Mukherjee has lived in England and Canada, and first came to the United States in 1961 to study at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Option elimination -

(A) Being a United States citizen since 1988 and born in Calcutta in 1940, author Bharati Mukherjee has - avoid the use of "being" as a modifier. Generally wrong on GMAT (except when used as a noun/noun phrase such as Being punctual is an essential trait in the business world/The philosophy course explores the nature of being (here the nature of being refers to the philosophical inquiry into existence and reality) or passive continuous verb such as - The car is being repaired by the mechanics). As Shraddha has pointed out, Because she was a US citizen and born in 1940, she has lived in England....doesn't make sense.

(B) Having been a United States citizen since 1988, she was born in Calcutta in 1940; author Bharati Mukherjee - ridiculous. First, she became a US citizen; then, she was born.

(C) Born in Calcutta in 1940, author Bharati Mukherjee became a United States citizen in 1988; she has - ok.

(D) Being born in Calcutta in 1940 and having been a United States citizen since 1988, author Bharati Mukherjee - avoid the use of "being" as a modifier. Generally wrong on GMAT (except when used as a noun/noun phrase such as Being punctual is an essential trait in the business world/The philosophy course explores the nature of being (here the nature of being refers to the philosophical inquiry into existence and reality or passive continuous verb such as - The car is being repaired by the mechanics). Moreover, similar meaning error - Because she was born in Calcutta and because she was a US citizen, she lived...

(E) Having been born in Calcutta in 1940 and being a United States citizen since 1988, author Bharati Mukherjee - same as D.