A gr8 Q.
Straight into my log.(+1).

My 2 cents:
His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms finally successful, Sir Joseph Lister lent his name to the company that developed Listerine, the first antibacterial liquid.

A. His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms finally successful
[ This option misses the verb, thus it can only act as a modifier to something. So here
it does modify Sir Lister. Its less expensive and clear]

B. Since his campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms had been eventually successful
C. Because of the eventual success of his campaigning for sanitary conditions in operating rooms
[ B and C try to use
Because/Since IC, IC kind of format. Which can also be correct ( I don't agree to people who say
it is not a cause-effect relation). But B uses "had been" were simple past can be used. And C uses
campaigning - campaign it self suggest a on going process. "of his campaigning" is akward.]
Even if B and C would have been correct, they are wordier than A !!
D. His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms being eventually successful
[ being ]
E. Campaigning, eventually successfully, for conditions to be sanitary in operating rooms
[ changes the meaning of the sentence]

Responding to why (A) is not wrong:

Take a look at that first part of the sentence before the comma:

"His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms finally successful"

--notice it is NOT a complete sentence.

So since it is not a complete sentence, it must be a descriptive phrase. What does that descriptive phrase modify?

It modifies Sir Joseph Lister.

We can confirm this with the word "HIS" -which must reference that person.

Cut the fluff and read it like this:

"His campaign finally successful, Sir Joseph did blah blah blah.."

Likewise:

"His GMAT studies finally complete, Abhay went out and partied."--same idea - it's fine.

http://www.gmatpill.com/gmat-practice-t ... stion/3189

Hi bagdbmba,

I'd be happy to chime in here:

For easy reference, here's the question again:
His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms finally successful, Sir Joseph Lister lent his name to the company that developed Listerine, the first antibacterial liquid.
(A) His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms finally successful
(B) Since his campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms had been eventually successful
(C) Because of the eventual success of his campaigning for sanitary conditions in operating rooms
(D) His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms being eventually successful
(E) Campaigning, eventually successfully, for conditions to be sanitary in operating rooms

User Response Data: A 23% B 33% C 22% D 14% E 7%


The Source, and The Bigger GMAT Picture
This is a very odd question. Official GMAT questions are designed so that the right answer gets more votes than any other, there will be a runner-up option, and 3 lesser selected options. Here, there are TWO options either at par or even more selected than the right answer. That makes me a little skeptical that this is an official question (although I could not confirm a source, so we have to leave in the possibility that it’s official). At Beat the GMAT, it's cited as a Princeton Review question, but after Googling the question, I saw that GMAT Pill appears to be offering the question on its platform too. Very unclear.

Analysis:
Now to the question: what is the author trying to convey? Sir Joseph Lister’s campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms was finally successful (implying a challenge). At which point, he lent his name to the company that developed Listerine.

Options A, B, and C, received about 80% of the vote, so our discussion needs to center on options A, B, and C.
In the original sentence, check out this clause that appears before the comma. Notice that it serves as a modifier. With modifiers, we can use something we call the What Is/Who is? test. Whose campaign was finally successful? What does that clause modify? Sir Joseph Lister. That modifier is correct. It was Joseph Lister’s campaign.

When we’re dealing with modifiers, chucking the filler provides amazing clarity, especially with awkward sentences like this.
Dump the filler: His campaign successful, Joseph Lister lent his name. Totally fine. Although the original sentence sounds AWFUL to the ears and looks HORRENDOUS to the eyes, it’s amazing how the filler can contort things to make the good sound bad. The option is just fine.

Now to B (which is the most selected option):

Since – Since slightly alters the author’s intentions. “Since” implies that lending his name was dependent on the condition of campaign success. However, the author is saying that Lister lent his name after that event happened more as a matter of circumstance than a matter of some sort of mandate or condition.
Had Been – There is ZERO reason to use past-perfect here. Past-perfect refers to the first of two events that CONCLUDED in the past. The campaigns success, and the lending of the name are both ongoing or events (or at best the temporal relationship is too unclear to assign past-perfect since the original option doesn’t indicate that we’re referring to two events that concluded in the past).

Let’s wrap up with options D and E:
D) The GMAT frowns on a gratuitous mid-clausal BEING verb. It would be a thunderclap of an event for a mid-clause BEING to be correct on the GMAT. Note that BEING is just fine in official questions if used as a connector (at the beginning of a sentence, or after a comma). This BEING in D has no business being here. Dump D fast.

E) Is a calamity. It’s choppy, it’s awkward, and it’s what we like to call a Jumbler. You’ll see these on your GMAT: jumbled throw away answers that appear almost as though the test-writers just needed to full an option.
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Does option A doesn't viloates the Rule - two independent clauses must be separated by Semicolon or Comma+FANBOYS.

Pls explain
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I need to work on timing badly!!

There is a whale of a difference in meaning between 'finally' and 'eventually'. To use eventually, there must be an event before that was the cause of the description. Finally means at last, and in a sense, after some repeated attempts. Normally, they are not interchangeable.

However, this is a peculiar case. Since, there was a solid event such as a campaign, eventually may be acceptable. At the same time, we cannot also fault “ finally’, as the meaning conveyed here is that the campaign met with success after some protracted effort. Therefore, interchanging ‘eventually’ for ‘finally’ in this context may not be so critical as other fatal flaws that one can find to dislodge B and E. Yet, it could have been avoided.
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..

Hi,
If I have understood your query clearly..

his campaign would be sir JL's campaign...
but the reference of the 'his' in 'his campaign' is clearly pointing towards to sir JL..

His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms finally successful, Sir Joseph Lister lent his name to the company that developed Listerine, the first antibacterial liquid.

So all the possesive pronouns are refering back correctly to Sir JL..

some more example..
his head held high, ram entered the room.
Her mood upbeat, cherry easily won over her opponents..
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The underlined portion in option A is an absolute phrase modifier.

Following is an excerpt from Manhattan SC guide:

A few GMAT sentences use a sophisticated modifier called an Absolute Phrase. Absolute phrases are composed of a noun plus a noun modifier. These phrases do not have to modify what they touch; rather, they modify the main clause in some way.

Right: His head held high, Owen walked out of the store.

The noun (noun phrase), His head, and the noun modifier, held high, together forms an absolute phrase modifying the whole main clause (Owen walked out of the store).

Similarly, the absolute phrase in option A consists of the following:
Noun (noun phrase): His campaign for sanitary conditions in operating rooms
Noun modifier: finally successful

Thus option A is alright.

Option C does not make any sense. The cause and effect events have been reversed in option C - because Sir Joseph lent his name, the campaign was successful, not the other way round. The success came later ("eventual").

In A the first part is an absolute phrase:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/his-campaign ... l#p1814499

In case you are not convinced, please mention specifically why do you think it is not an absolute phrase.

A noun modifier is functionally nothing but an adjective. An adjective is the most basic form of noun modifiers. Past participle and present participle may also be used as noun modifiers, but fundamentally they are all adjectives for the noun they refer to. There is no justification that the most basic form of modifier, the adjective, cannot be used in an absolute phrase.

Note the word "eventual" in option C - this word depicts that the success came AFTER he lent his name. Thus lending cannot precede success. Thus option C is wrong.

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