In contrast to the tense private drama, Act III is brought to a thrill

Contrast: The tensed drama is "PRIVATE", while King Henry's defiance is "PUBLIC"

The defiance heralded an end of Act III, which was characteristics of certain activities:
as the king defies..., divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and
proclaims himself head of the Church of England.

In that sense, E is correct.

The issue at stake is the comparison. We need something to contrast the private drama
A. In contrast to the tense private drama, Act III is brought to a thrilling conclusion by King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England. --- Act III is not a proper contrast to the private drama – so wrong

B. In contrast to the tense private drama, a thrilling conclusion of Act III is brought by King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England. –--- a thrilling conclusion is not a contrast to the private drama.

C. In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry publicly defies the Roman Catholic Church by defying the papal legate, divorcing Catherine, taking Anne as his wife, and proclaiming himself head of the Church of England, bringing Act III to a thrilling conclusion. ----– King Henry is not a contrast to private drama.

D. In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry's defiance of the papal legate, divorce from Catherine, marriage to Anne, and self-proclamation as head of the Church of England, all a public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church which brings Act III to a thrilling conclusion. – mere defiance is not an adequate contrast to a private drama.

E. In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church brings Act III to a thrilling conclusion, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England ---- Public defiance is the correct contrast. Hence, E is the answer
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I choose C as the OA...
All the other option has a pronoun he, which doesn't have an antecedent because king henry is serving as adjective not as noun

how is king Henry's defiance is in contrast with a drama???

I had selected Option B,,,,can anyone explain my mistake??/or can explain OA??

Hi Maryam,
if you've read the original sentence carefully, you would realize that its trying to compare two things.
For example, in contrast to X, Y; as in saying: in contrast to a military regime, the civilian administration
makes laws, which requires both the Senate and House of Reps to subject such bills to debate before it
is passed into law.
In contrast to a dude, a lady will most likely prefer to be a good listener in matters of relationship.

Does that make sense?

Now, back to your question.
We can equally say: unlike X, Y.
Unlike the private drama, the public defiance of King Henry brought Act III to a thrilling conclusion..2 opposing
scenario.
However, option B compares the "tensed private drama" to "a thrilling conclusion of Act III"...that's illogical, right?

Even I have doubts regarding E, the OA.
It says: ".....KING HENRY'S PUBLIC DEFIANCE of the Roman Catholic Church brings..., as HE defies ..."

What does "HE" refer to?

On such occasion, it might be noteworthy to ask what the source might be.
Over to you, Actleader.

I was making reference to the possessive poison rule, but I learn the rule is of no effect,
Meaning, "he" can actually refer to "King Henry's"

The rule still applies. It states:

Possessive noun + Possessive Pronoun - CORRECT (X's salary is too high as is his stature) (dont try to make sense out of these sentences )
Possessive noun + non-possessive pronoun - INCORRECT (X's salary is too high as he lives in NY)
NP noun + P Pronoun - CORRECT ( X is a great man, and his children are blabla)
NP Noun + NP Pronoun - CORRECT (X is a great man, and he is blabla)

basically:
if the referent is a 'normal' (non-possessive) noun, then the pronoun can be in any case.
if the referent is in the possessive case, then the pronoun can only be possessive.

so essentially only when the noun is in possessive case and the pronoun is not in possessive case is this construction wrong. That is the case here.

Hence there is ambiguity and probably the question is not reflective of what you might get on the test day.

Best

Hi Jumsumtak,

I actually encountered a number of "official" questions from recognized Test Preps, which violate the so-called
"Possessive Poison" rule.
Am sorry, I have not been able to trace the questions, but the post from Manhattan (the originator or the concept)
may be of help.
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/sc- ... t5164.html

Also, you can read this:
here-is-the-latest-flash-on-the-possessive-poison-front-108522.html



Just google "possessive poison" on gmat forums.

Hope the information was helpful...

Hey gmatbull,

Request you to re-read the Manhattan post you mentioned. It says the same thing as I wrote in my post above. In fact I picked a part of it from there itself.

I quote Ron here:

the "rule" is:
* POSSESSIVE NOUN with NON-POSSESSIVE PRONOUN is NOT OK.
BUT
ALL OTHER COMBINATIONS are ok.
i.e.
possessive noun with possessive pronoun is ok.
non-possessive noun with non-possessive pronoun is ok.
non-possessive noun with possessive pronoun is ok.

that's the complete version of the rule -- which, not surprisingly, tends to confuse a lot more than it tends to enlighten. also, although it may help you eliminate the odd answer choice here and there, it has NEVER actually been required to solve an official problem.

so:
ONLY use this "rule" if you understand it 100.0000%. if there is absolutely any confusion at all, just ignore this rule and pretend that you have never seen it.


Hope this helps.

Best

(A) In contrast to the tense private drama, Act III is brought to a thrilling conclusion by King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England. - passive voice. incorrect.

(B) In contrast to the tense private drama, a thrilling conclusion of Act III is brought by King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England. - passive voice. incorrect.

(C) In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry publicly defies the Roman Catholic Church by defying the papal legate, divorcing Catherine, taking Anne as his wife, and proclaiming himself head of the Church of England, bringing Act III to a thrilling conclusion. - modifier issue, TENSE issue. incorrect.

(D) In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry's defiance of the papal legate, divorce from Catherine, marriage to Anne, and self-proclamation as head of the Church of England, all a public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church which brings Act III to a thrilling conclusion. - same as C. incorrect.

(E)In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church brings Act III to a thrilling conclusion, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England. - active voice, no modifier issue. correct.

In contrast to the tense private drama, Act III is brought to a thrilling conclusion by King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England.

A. In contrast to the tense private drama, Act III is brought to a thrilling conclusion by King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England.............possessive form of antecedent does not correlate to its pronoun.

B. In contrast to the tense private drama, a thrilling conclusion of Act III is brought by King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England.
possessive form of antecedent does not correlate to its pronoun.

C. In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry publicly defies the Roman Catholic Church by defying the papal legate, divorcing Catherine, taking Anne as his wife, and proclaiming himself head of the Church of England, bringing Act III to a thrilling conclusion........king is compared to drama

D. In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry's defiance of the papal legate, divorce from Catherine, marriage to Anne, and self-proclamation as head of the Church of England, all a public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church which brings Act III to a thrilling conclusion.........................defiance repeats in redundancy and option s wordy and clumsier

E. In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church brings Act III to a thrilling conclusion, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England.

Although E is better than other choices, how can he refer to Henry when noun is in possessive form?

i have encountered this question before.
NONE of the answers is correct.
a pronoun cannot refer to a "possessive" thing, as "king henry's" is an adjective. since a pronoun MUST refer to a noun, E is incorrect.

In contrast to the tense private drama, Act III is brought to a thrilling conclusion by King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England.

King Henry's public defiance is compared with 'tense private drama'.

(A) In contrast to the tense private drama, Act III is brought to a thrilling conclusion by King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England.
Act III is not in contrast to tense private drama

(B) In contrast to the tense private drama, a thrilling conclusion of Act III is brought by King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England.

a thrilling conclusion is not in contrast to the tense private drama.

(C) In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry publicly defies the Roman Catholic Church by defying the papal legate, divorcing Catherine, taking Anne as his wife, and proclaiming himself head of the Church of England, bringing Act III to a thrilling conclusion.

King Henry is not ' In contrast to the tense private drama'
(D) In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry's defiance of the papal legate, divorce from Catherine, marriage to Anne, and self-proclamation as head of the Church of England, all a public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church which brings Act III to a thrilling conclusion.
wrong sentence construction.

(E)In contrast to the tense private drama, King Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church brings Act III to a thrilling conclusion, as he defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife, and proclaims himself head of the Church of England.

Hi Expert,

please help why choice A is incorrect and Choice C is correct. Choice A correctly compares tense private drama with Act III, and there is no other difference between choice A and choice other than choice a is passive and choice E is active. To me, choice A makes more sense.

You are right - in the real test it is not expected that an answer is eliminated just because of the voice issue - passive voice is NOT grammatically wrong.

Moreover note the pronoun error - "he" does not have an antecedent ("King Henry's" is possessive and hence cannot be an antecedent of a subject pronoun).

A subject pronoun may refer to a possessive.
The OA to SC805 in the OG18:
Although Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s success was later overshadowed by that of her husband, among her contemporaries she was considered the better poet.
Here, the referent for she (subject pronoun) is Elizabeth Barrett Browning's (possessive).
_________________

what "he" is referring to?

Rescue me out!!!