Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales, which have been

What an ugly sentence!

Here’s my attempt and explainations:-
A – two errors. Firstly autobiographies is the only work that remained unknown when presumably the contract is being made between his fairy tails and all the remaining works (e.g. plays, novels etc). Secondly, I don’t think it’s correct to say ‘remained’, because these works still remain unknown. Remained is the incorrect past tense.
B – HCA’s fairy tales, which, ......, his plays, novels.... is incorrect. Either the which or the while needs removing.
C – ‘still’ doesn’t contrast the event after ‘even as’
D – Two errors. Firstly fairy tales is being compared to he (HCA) and secondly, the placement of which suggests that HCA is among the most frequently translated works.
E – Correct.

Anyone pick up any other errors?

A, B: ‘which’ denotes non-essential modifier… wrong here… also, ‘while’ is surely wrong. Again, the second ‘which’ in
A is wrong.
C: still is WRONG
D: UNLIKE fairy tales … he… fairy tales are comapared with HE

So, Ans E

Why is B wrong here?

B. Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales, which, while among the most frequently translated works in literary history, his plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies remain - which, while - not right

why is which, while wrong?

I would say B presents most awkward construction among all options. I have highlighted all structural error and all awkward stuff.

which his plays remain -- two subject one verb.

B. Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales (clause ends), which(subject of relative clause), (modifer->) while among the most frequently translated works in literary history (<-ends) , his(another subject) plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies remain (verb) - which, while (what does it mean)- not right almost unknown outside his native Denmark.

Hi daagh,


Can you please elaborate Point 1. How could you say that The entire text is in present tense..... I am not able to understand
According to me its in past tense because all the verbs wrote translated are pointing toward past tense.

Although I opted for correct option and was eliminate A and D easily.
But I want to understand how did you eliminated on the basis of VERBS

Please assist.

chetan2u... Would you like to contribute on this..?

It's past midnight in India and hence it would take some time for daagh and chetan2u to respond. In the mean time, I would try to answer your query.

Present tense: which have been.
Past tense: which remained.

The initial part of option A states that Fairly tales have been .... whereas the latter part states that autobiographies remained..... This is probably what daagh meant by shifting from present to past.

Nonetheless, please note that the correct verb should have been "have remained" since these works are still unknown outside native Denmark.

Thanks for clearing doubt.
How could I miss --> which have been

A - Good option. But, the word 'while' spoils the meaning of the sentence.
B - Same as A.
C - Even and Still - redundant. Stylistic error.
D - Unlike X, Y. X and Y should be parallel which is not the case. Since, X is active and Y is passive
E - Perfect.

IMO 600-700 level question.

Hi sayantanc2k

very sorry to open this post after so long.

I have a doubt about my understanding of correct answer 'E'. As in the case of comparisons , we compare two similar entities , is the case similar with usage of 'Although'? We begin the sentence "Although Hans Christian wrote...... his plays, novels, poems.. remain. " the compared entities being 'Hans Christian' and 'his plays, novels'. Is this acceptable with conjunctions such as Although, while, etc..?

Thanks in advance

"Although ......" is a subordinate clause and it introduces a contrast here. "his plays, novels, poems,....." is an independent clause.

Sentence structure is : Although HCA wrote fairy tales etc, his plays, novels etc...remain unknown...

Answer: (E).

A. Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales, which have been some of the most frequently translated works in literary history, while he wrote plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies, which remained

B. Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales, which, while among the most frequently translated works in literary history, his plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies remain

C. Even as Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales have been among the most frequently translated works in literary history, still his plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies, remain

D. Unlike the fairy tales written by Hans Christian Andersen, which are some of the most frequently translated works in literary history, he wrote plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies, which remained

E. Although Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales that are among the most frequently translated works in literary history, his plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies, remain


A. "Wrote fairy tales while he wrote history" is not correct IMO. Also, "which remained" is wrong tense.

B. "which, while" is not correct.

C. We don't have a subject for "his" as HCA is in possessive case.

D. Wrong comparison - "Unlike the fairy tales" is a prepositional phrase, and "his plays" is a pronoun phrase.

E. E is correct.

egmat Can you please explain, how to eliminate option 1?

In the option "E" :

Although Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales that are among the most frequently translated works in literary history, his plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies, remain

Shouldn't it be "those" given fairy tales are countable and plural?

Hi abhitg0612,

As a relative pronoun, that has no plural form.
1a. A book that is...
1b. Books that are...
1c. Books those are...

In other cases, we need to use the plural form of that (those) with a plural noun.
2a. That book is...
2b. Those books are...

AjiteshArun

Although Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales that are among the most frequently translated works in literary history, his plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies, remain almost unknown outside his native Denmark.


i think the comma in the sentence is not right.

We never put comma between Subject and Verb. ( we already have "as well as" to separate different noun entities)

Another reference in which you mentioned: The blending of X, Y, and Z, suggests something. was wrong. ( here comma was one of the factor)
https://gmatclub.com/forum/in-her-later ... l#p2559367

Hi imSKR

The independent sentence of E is as below:

- his plays, novels, poems, and travel books , as well as several autobiographies, remain almost unknown outside his native Denmark.

The red part in between two commas is an inessential modifier. Because those two commas are used to introduce that inessential modifier, you remove the commas together with the modifier. Hence, without the modifier E reads as below:

- his plays, novels, poems, and travel books remain almost unknown outside his native Denmark.

You have three subjects A, B, and C that are not separated from the verb by a comma. The sentence below has a similar structure:

- John , as well as Mary, wants to drop the course.

Without the modifier, the sentence is: John wants to drop the course.

Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales, which have been some of the most frequently translated works in literary history, while he wrote plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies, which remained almost unknown outside his native Denmark.

A. Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales, which have been some of the most frequently translated works in literary history, while he wrote plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies, which remained "remained" suddenly moves the sentence into the past tense, whereas the rest of the sentence is in present tense. Present tense also makes logical sense since the sentence is talking about the current situation. Eliminate.

B. Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales, which, while among the most frequently translated works in literary history, his plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies remain Sentence fragment. Eliminate.

C. Even as Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales have been among the most frequently translated works in literary history, still his plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies, remain "Even" followed by "still" is a double contrast, which essentially removes the contrast intended in the sentence. Eliminate.

D. Unlike the fairy tales written by Hans Christian Andersen, which are some of the most frequently translated works in literary history, he wrote plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies, which remained Same error as in (A). Eliminate.

E. Although Hans Christian Andersen wrote fairy tales that are among the most frequently translated works in literary history, his plays, novels, poems, and travel books, as well as several autobiographies, remain Correct answer.

Hope this helps.