In the 1940s popular magazines in the United States began to report on

[quote="Bunuel"]In the 1940s popular magazines in the United States began to report on the private lives of persons from the entertainment industry, in despite of the fact that they previously had featured individuals in business and politics.


A. in despite of the fact that they previously had featured individuals

B. in spite of the fact previously that these publications featured articles on those

C. whereas previously there were those individuals featured in articles

D. whereas previously those individuals they featured were

E. whereas previously these publications had featured articles on individuals


EducationAisle, Bunuel, chetan2u
In option E- we have previously in the non-underlined portion, which already means that the event happened prior to 1940. So, how do we justify the use of had in the correct OA?
Please clarify.

[quote="Bunuel"]In the 1940s popular magazines in the United States began to report on the private lives of persons from the entertainment industry, in despite of the fact that they previously had featured individuals in business and politics.


A. in despite of the fact that they previously had featured individuals

B. in spite of the fact previously that these publications featured articles on those

C. whereas previously there were those individuals featured in articles

D. whereas previously those individuals they featured were

E. whereas previously these publications had featured articles on individuals

both featured in D and had featured in C is correct.
but in choice D, "those individuals" refer to "persons from " this is no sense.
[

IT'S SHOW TIME

ROUND 1 STUPID CONSTRUCTION (AWKWARD CONSTRUCTION/ REDUNDANCY)
IN DESPITE... WTH???? STUPID WORDING.... GET OUT A
IN SPITE...; OHK BUT "FACT PREVIOUSLY THAT", SERIOUSLY? WE'RE RAISING MANAGERS HERE, GET OUT B
THERE WERE THOSE INDIVIDUALS.... WOW... JUST WOW... WHERE IS "THERE". A PRONOUN NEEDS AN ANTECEDENT AND A PLACE NEEDS A NAME, FYI MAGAZINE IS A THING NOT A PLACE Y'ALL. SO BYE BYE C

ROUND 2 TENSES
NOW YOU'RE TALKING
THOSE AND THEY IS OK COZ WE GOT A REFERENT BUT STILL AMBIGUOUS
LET'S FIND SOME OTHER FLAW INSTEAD
HAD V WERE
YES
YES YES
WE GOT YOU MR. TEST MAKER

WE KNOW THE TIME LINE RULES
WE NEED A HAD HERE.
SO BYE BYE D

E IS OUR WINNER!!!!!!!!

Wait but look out there... fact previously that is an acceptable form of speech right??? I eliminated it because of "those" in the end
Is that correct?????

Hey man I get it... It's really hard to catch Unidiomatic structures, but, I assure you it's awkward when you read the sentence in full. On GMAT if you have doubts, regarding what Questions are testing awkward construction, use the options as a tool. And thanks, I've read the texts, Glad I could help a fellow GMAT student. And even more thanks for kudos.

@EMPOWERgmatVerbal/daagh/GMATNinja,

Isn't usage of past perfect is optional as the previously word indicates the sequence of action correctly?
Will the below option correct, in that case,
F. whereas previously these publications featured articles on individuals

Thanks.

A) - 'In despite' is the wrong phrase to convey the intended meaning here.
B) - 'In spite of' is incorrect choice of phrase. The rest of the sentence is awkward and wordy
C) - The highlighted text is awkward and wordy
D) - Same error as C
E) - 'Whereas' is the correct phrase to convey the intended meaning here. 'Had featured' correctly conveys the order of events that 1. Articles and individuals related to business used to be featured 2. Now (still in the past) , people from the entertainment industry are featured.

Dear IanStewart DmitryFarber GMATGuruNY

Can publications feature a person (as in choice A.)?
Or it must be that publications feature AN ARTICLE ON a person (as in choice E.)?

Either way.

Correct: World-renowned paper salesman, Michael Scott, is featured on page 5 of the latest issue of the Wall Street Journal.
Correct: The Wall Street Journal featured an article on Michael Scott, world-renowned paper salesman.

Why is E right here? It seems to be the best option, but the "previously" and "had featured" throws it off for. In the above explanations, it seems as though this makes it questionable but not incorrect. Is there a more technical reason why it's not wrong? Don't the those two pieces make it a little redundant? Moreever, should it always be like this (i.e., if there is a marker that alludes to the past and there's past perfect, you can't remove the answer for it)?

Sorry for all the questions..just a little confused!

good question.

we realize that choice E is best but there is a problem.

past perfect is used if the order of 2 events is not clear. we do not know which event happen before the other and we use past perfect to show the clear order. if we do not use past perfect, the second meaning happens-two events happen simultaneously- or unclear order happen.

if the order of two events is clear, we dont use past perfect but use two simple past.

I learned gmat in 2000 and previously I learned english.

so, choice E is problematic.

In the 1940s popular magazines in the United States began to report on the private lives of persons from the entertainment industry, in despite of the fact that they previously had featured individuals in business and politics.


A. in despite of the fact that they previously had featured individuals X

B. in spite of the fact previously that these publications featured articles on those X

C. whereas previously there were those individuals featured in articles X

D. whereas previously those individuals they featured were X

E. whereas previously these publications had featured articles on individuals Correct

EMPOWERgmatVerbal
Please clarify.

In option E
whereas previously these publications had featured articles on individuals in business and politics.
we have parallelism error since ....private lives of persons from the entertainment industry.

If we choose option D
whereas previously those individuals they featured were in business and politics.
in this sentence they can refer to popular magzines and since pronoun ambiguity is not a strict rule.
use of in seems more apt in option D more than option E

ExpertsGlobal5

Can the pronoun 'they' refer to the popular magazines even though it's an entity and not a person?

MartyTargetTestPrep

EMPOWERgmatVerbal mentions: Answers B, C, and D are INCORRECT because they use the past tense “featured” instead of the past perfect “had featured.”

However, wouldn't you have picked a different issue(s) to rule these answer choices out because "previously" and "featured" clearly indicate the timeframe and do not require the use of past perfect for this reason? I would be so appreciative to learn your view on how I approached this question below...
For A:
-I don't like "in despite of the fact" ... despite of the fact =although and substituting in although does not seem logical
-I don't like the ambiguous use of "they"... is it referring to the "magazines" or the "private lives"?

For B:
-I don't like "in spite of the fact previously that" --> in spite of the fact seems unidiomatic and "those" is ambiguous per my point above on Choice A... who does "those" refer to?

For C:
-I don't like "there were those individuals" just seems unidiomatic/repetitive... why do you need "those" and "individuals"

For D:
-Same as C "those individuals they" just seems unidiomatic/repetitive... why do you need "those", "individuals", and "they"

"Previously" does indicates time sequence. However, sometimes it makes more sense to use the past perfect than the simple past with "previously." So, we have to consider sentences that use "previously" on a case by case basis to determine which tense makes sense to use.


"In despite of the fact" is indeed illogical.

However, I think "they" pretty clearly refers to "popular magazines in the United States," since the magazines would have featured those individuals. In other words, there may be some slight degree of ambiguity regarding what "they" refers to, but that slight degree of ambiguity is not a clear reason to eliminate this choice.


Yes, "in spite of the fact previously that" has "previously" placed illogically between "fact" and "that."

However, the use of "those" is not clearly incorrect.


That construction could work in some contexts. The issue main issue with this choice is that the meaning conveyed doesn't make sense. After all, the fact that "there were those individuals" doesn't logically contrast with the previous fact about the people magazines began to report on.

Here's a simpler version that shows the issue more clearly.

Magazines began to report on the lives of persons in entertainment, whereas previously, there were those individuals feature in articles.

Notice that, in this version, "in business and politics" is placed to modify "articles" rather than "individuals" with the result that the point about the individuals being in business in politics is not conveyed.


The use of "those" doesn't make sense here; the correct word to use is "the."

However, the real issue with this choice is that the meaning isn't clearly conveyed.

Is the point that the magazines did something previously or that the individuals were in different fields previously to being featured? Which point the sentence is meant to convey isn't clear.

Hi Experts GMATNinja KarishmaB

I have a query regarding the answer (E).

In this option we are using both "previously" and "had featured". ?? Is that correct?

Where I think (D) makes more sense since though "they" pronoun reference is a bit ambiguous but that is not the end in GMAT...?

Please help to clear my confusion?

Thanks.