Re: Clark and Florence Wallace, a husband-and-wife medical team, worked st
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13 Nov 2015, 01:09
OA is C.
Clark and Florence Wallace, a husband-and-wife medical team, worked steadily and efficiently through the night, but sipping their coffee the next morning, she noticed that he seemed disoriented.
Note that there is a [,but] in the sentence, and to save efforts, let's analyze only the sentence after "but".
(A) sipping their coffee the next morning, she noticed that he seemed disoriented
Wrong.
The subject is "she", however is it irrational for the wife to drink up all "their" coffee alone.
Based on the context, we know that the wife actually did, too.
(B) sipping their coffee the next morning, he seemed to be disoriented, she noticed
Wrong.
Similar to A. It is irrational for the husband to drink up all "their" coffee alone.
The word "husband" is closer to "sipping", therefore grammatically only the husband drank the coffee.
But based on the context we know that the wife actually did, too.
(C) as they sipped their coffee the next morning, she noticed that he seemed disoriented
Correct.
Both the husband and wife are drinking coffee, and the wife noticed that her husband is disoriented.
(I have to admit that the simple past tense "sipped" makes me feel uncomfortable.)
(D) as they were sipping their coffee the next morning, he seemed, she noticed, disoriented
If there is no option A, I will go for D because the present progressive tense is perfect.
But here is my reason to cross out D:
In C,"she" is the subject, which means that the sentence is stressing the wife's discovery.
In D, "she noticed" is only a parentheses. And if you actually did so, the sentence is therefore stressing the husband's disorientation, not the wife's discovery.
(E) he seemed disoriented, she noticed, sipping their coffee the next morning
Wrong.
Same as A.