Manhattan Prep Instructor
Joined: 28 Aug 2009
Posts: 144
Location: St. Louis, MO
Schools:Cornell (Bach. of Sci.), UCLA Anderson (MBA)
Re: Before George Eliot became the popular and respected
[#permalink]
16 Jul 2010, 12:45
I'm reluctant to chime in on this one because I believe there are a couple of transcription errors in the original post (for example, a comma missing in B and the end of the sentence is missing in the given sentence). I'm relying more on the BTG post linked above. Plus, I think it is odd that the name George Eliot is used twice, not because of redundancy, but because of inaccuracy. Before the author became known as George Eliot, she (by definition of "before"!) was not referred to as George Eliot. In case you were wondering, she was known as Mary Anne Evans originally (thanks Wikipedia!).
But all that aside, A is better than D because the commas around George Eliot are incorrect, or at least debatable. "Known as" may be wordier, but it is more correct.
For example:
The popular and often-quoted author Mark Twain lived in Hannibal, Missouri, during his formative years. CORRECT.
The popular and often-quoted author known as Mark Twain lived in Hannibal, Missouri, during his formative years. CORRECT.
The popular and often-quoted author, Mark Twain, lived in Hannibal, Missouri, during his formative years. INCORRECT (or at least less correct).
Some might argue that his name is parenthetical, and the sentence is grammatically complete as "The popular and often-quoted author lived in Hannibal, Missouri, during ...." They'd be right. But it's tough to make the case that the name of this author is optional/unimportant/less important than the generic subject "author."
The real GMAT would make all 4 wrong answers more definitively wrong than that, in my opinion.