He encouraged massive strides in equality, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The source is Practice test 3 of GMAT Club grammar book (Q# 30). OA is D and which I think is the best out of five.

Holy Toledo! I would bet everything I own that (D) would never ever be the correct answer on a real GMAT SC problem. Part of the problem is the superfluous word "being" at the beginning. If we totally dropped that, then (D) would be a correct and elegant sentence:
A champion in proclaiming equal rights for all people, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged massive strides in equality.
Now that's a sentence I could imagine serving as a correct answer on the GMAT SC.
This version uses a sophisticated grammatical construction known as an appositive phrase. See:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-gramm ... e-phrases/

Let me know if anyone has any questions on this.
Mike

Thank you guys very much for responding :D

Hey,
thank you very much for your response,
I read your article and it was very helpful, but still i don't understand what the problem with Being in answer D?
can you elaborate about it more? when is it right and wrong to use being in Gmat SC?
thanks

Dear benyahalom,
As a general rule, the word "being" is almost always the kiss of death on a GMAT SC question. There are thousands of ways to toss in an extra "being" that simply does not need to be there ---- as in this particular sentence. I would say, well over 95% of the time the word "being" appears in the OG, it is plain wrong. There are some rare exception cases in which "being" could be correct, but those are very much in the minority.

Does this make sense?
Mike

I dont understand the meaning of the sentence. What is it trying to tell
esp this phrase " encouraged massive strides in equality" shouldnt it be "took(or some other word) massive strides in equality"

Dear Nilabh_s,
I'm happy to help with this.

The GMAT sometimes will employ some metaphorical language. Here, we are not discussing literal "strides" --- physical steps that someone takes by moving their legs. These are metaphorical "strides" --- progress of a philosophical or moral kind. I don't know how much you know about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968) --- many American regard him as a moral exemplar who raised the entire country to a higher level of ethical awareness. He is someone who already was morally "ahead", and he was encouraging others --- really most of the United States --- to catch up with him, to take "strides" so that we would be operating at that same level of consciousness. He already held and advocated a profound standard of equality, and he encouraged the rest of the country to take massive strides so we would arrive at this same deep understanding. Thus, he "encouraged massive strides in equality" --- he was the one advocating the progress, the strides, and other people actually had to take those strides.

If you are unfamiliar with Dr. King, I highly recommend finding out more about him. The GMAT doesn't demand a lot of outside knowledge, but it does demand at least a little understanding of cultural points of reference with which most GMAT takers would be deeply familiar. Knowing the basic story of Dr. King is one such point of reference.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

so, what is the correct answer?