Henry VIII changed from staunch defender to active opponent

My technique is to go directly to the other choices and look at the differences, and only look above when you have a specific criteria for what you're trying to find.

I would look at the elements of each answer choice as far as parallelism, and the poster above is correct.

staunch Defender is only parallel to active opponent. All the other choices have something goofy around active opponent like actively opposing or something all jacked up. Must compare like terms only.

Just from that it's possible to eliminate all the other choices aside from A.

On a side note, I don't believe that you should automatically eliminate anything that has being in it.

I think that that has really shifted in the GMAT over the past five or ten years. I do see right answers with the word being in them

Always work grammar first, then idioms, and then style.

Farrell Dyan Hehn, MBA
Admissions Consultant & Verbal Strategist MBAPrepCoach.com

Henry VIII changed from staunch defender to active opponent of the Church when Pope Clement VII barred his attempts to divorce Katherine of Aragon.

Shouldn't the answer contain "a". I mean shouldn't it be Henry VIII changed from a staunch defender to an active opponent of the Churchfarrell Dyan Hehn

Had the same thought, but still went for A) because of idiom. Would be cool if someone could clarify, though.

Hi,
staunch and active are a noun modifiers modifying defender and opponent , so the articles are not required.

Understand the meaning first.

Henry changed from something to something else.

The correct idiom that shows this transition is 'from x to y'.

'being' is used in two cases according to an article presented by e-gmat team.
1) If used as a noun
2) If used as part of the verb

In this sentence it plays neither of the two roles.

A is correct as it is.

Will this option be correct?

from being a staunch defender to being an active opponent of the church

Which option will be preferred A or E (changed)?


abhimahna
It would be great if you could answer this query.

As such I could not find much difference between the two except that your E is emphasizing the two roles.

First of all, GMAT will never test between these two options.

Secondly, If you ask my personal opinion out of A and B , I will love to go for A as I hate "being".

If E now emphasizes the roles, does that make it incorrect as we are talking about the two roles?

And yes 'being' creates some confusion.

No, I never said your E is incorrect. I meant that's the difference between A and your E.

But this scenario will never happen on GMAT. So, don't worry.

Thanks for your reply. Actually I meant to say that does this role emphasis creates any changes in meaning? Because if it does, its hard to find.

yes, that could be a point. We can reject E saying it is changing the original meaning. Good Point.

Could anyone please explain why option E is incorrect?

Here, Option A seems to be parallel and error free. So let’s hold on to that while we scan the options:

Option B – flouts parallelism. Eliminate.
Option C – Same as B. Does not observe parallelism. Eliminate.
Option D – Not parallel. Eliminate.
Option E – uses ‘being’ which only makes this option wordier and less concise than option A. Eliminate.

Option A is the best choice.

Hope this helps!

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.