Born in 1860 in Kirriemuir, a burgh in Scotland, and viewing life as a

Question

Born in 1860 in Kirriemuir, a burgh in Scotland, and viewing  life as a great adventure, James M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, in his classic story of Never Never Land emphasized on the theme of childlike innocence.

A) Born in 1860 in Kirriemuir, a burgh in Scotland, and viewing
B) Being born in 1860 in a burgh in Scotland called Kirriemuir, and viewing
C) Born in a burgh in Scotland in 1860 in Kirriemuir and viewed
D) He was born in 1860 in Kirriemuir, a burgh in Scotland, and he viewed
E) Born in Kirriemuir, a burgh in Scotland in 1860, and viewing

elavendan1 · Accepted Answer

I am no expert, but I will try to explain why D is wrong and why viewing is better than viewed.

Substitute option D, and we get 
He was born in 1860 in Kirriemuir, a burgh in Scotland, and he viewed life as a great adventure, James M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, in his classic story of Never Never Land emphasized on the theme of childlike innocence.
Three Independent Clauses: 
1. He was born in 1860 in Kirriemuir, a burgh in Scotland
2. he viewed life as a great adventure
3. James M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, in his classic story of Never Never Land emphasized on the theme of childlike innocence.

Clauses 1 and 2 are connected by a conjunction 'and'. Clauses 2 and 3 are connected by a comma. Technically, this is comma splice error. i.e, Two Independent clauses must be connected by a conjunction else the connection is called comma splice, which is not acceptable in GMAT>

Now to answer your second question, why viewing is better than viewed.
2 basic types of modifiers: 
,+Verb+ing modifiers - modify the preceding clause or the entire preceding clause (if placed after a clause) 
Verb+ing modifiers - modify the nearest noun 
Verb+ed modifiers - When placed in beginning of the sentence, modifies the noun.

Now, grammatically 'Born' and 'viewed' modify JMB. But here is the catch. When did he view? If we use born, it's one time activity. He was born and the action is completed. But did we get any such context as to from when to when did JMB viewed Life as X? We don't know. So, instead of V+ed modifier, V+ing modifier is preferred.

Does this answer your question?

Kritisood · Answer

@experts  generis   VeritasKarishma 
could you please explain how born and viewieng would be parallel here?

gvij2017 · Answer

Sometimes meaning beats the grammar.

Here A is the best choice as born and viewing both are modifying the JMB. Intent of statement is very clear. 
Rest of the choices are wrong either for incorrect grammar rules or for ambiguous meaning.

A is answer.

jaisonsunny77 · Answer

The author of classic story of Never Never Land wrote this story while viewing life as a great adventure. Hence, at the time of writing the story, the action of ''viewing'' was continuous in nature. Hence, the usage of present progressive tense ''viewing'' is correct.

Since (C) and (D) uses the past tense ''viewed'',  eliminate (C) and (D).  
 
A) Born in 1860 in Kirriemuir, a burgh in Scotland, and viewing - has no error. Hence,  (A) is the right answer choice.   
 B) Being born in 1860 in a burgh in Scotland called Kirriemuir, and viewing  -  ''being'' born implies that this event is still ongoing; this implication does not make sense.   
E) Born in Kirriemuir, a burgh in Scotland in 1860, and viewing  -  ''a burgh in Scotland in 1860'' implies that the status of Kirriemuir as a burgh in Scotland changed at some point in time. besides, (E) implies that it is the ''burgh'' that was born in Kirriemuir, not the author.

Thelionking1234 · Answer

Kritisood  Born and viewing are logically parallel here. Born in 1860 in... and viewing.... Both describe James.

Parallelism should be logical also.

Please let me know if you still have doubt.

Posted from my mobile device

Dpkkukreja · Answer

GMATNinja   egmat   VeritasKarishma

Can you guys please explain this question?

I am not able to understand what's the problem with D

A is the OA but how viewing is correct? Is viewed not better than viewing?

shivamasthana · Answer

How is viewing in the answer choice correct? I think the sentence implies that the author has written the book in the past. Also, why is option is D incorrect?.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Born in 1860 in Kirriemuir, a burgh in Scotland, and viewing life as a

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Born in 1860 in Kirriemuir, a burgh in Scotland, and viewing life as a

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