Bengal-born writer, philosopher, and educator Rabindranath Tagore had

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Concepts tested here: Tenses + Parallelism + Idioms

• The simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.
• The past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past".
• Any elements linked by a conjunction ("and also" in this sentence) must be parallel.
• “not only A but also B” is the correct, idiomatic usage; A must be parallel to B.
• "admiration for" is the correct, idiomatic construction.

A: This answer choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb "had been" to refer to one of two actions that concluded in the past and took place at the same time - Rabindranath Tagore having the greatest admiration for Mohandas K. Gandhi and Tagore being skeptical of Gandhi's form of nationalism and his conservative opinions about India's cultural traditions; remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past, and the past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is only used when a sentence contains two actions in the past, and one took place before the other; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past". Further, Option A fails to maintain parallelism between "the person" and "as a politician"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("and also" in this sentence) must be parallel.

B: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses the simple past tense verb "was" to refer to one of two actions that concluded in the past and took place at the same time - Rabindranath Tagore having the greatest admiration for Mohandas K. Gandhi and Tagore being skeptical of Gandhi's form of nationalism and his conservative opinions about India's cultural traditions. Further, Option B correctly maintains parallelism between "as a person" and "as a politician". Additionally, Option B correctly uses the idiomatic construction "admiration for". Moreover, Option B avoids the idiom error seen in Options C and E, as it does not use the "not only A but also B" construction.

C: This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "not only A ("as a person") and B ("as a politician")"; please remember, “not only A but also B” is the correct, idiomatic usage; A must be parallel to B.

D: This answer choice uses the unidiomatic construction "admiration of"; please remember, "admiration for" is the correct, idiomatic construction. Further, Option D fails to maintain parallelism between "as a person" and "as also a politician"; please remember, any elements linked by a conjunction ("and" in this sentence) must be parallel.

E: This answer choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb "had...been" to refer to one of two actions that concluded in the past and took place at the same time - Rabindranath Tagore having the greatest admiration for Mohandas K. Gandhi and Tagore being skeptical of Gandhi's form of nationalism and his conservative opinions about India's cultural traditions; remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past, and the past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is only used when a sentence contains two actions in the past, and one took place before the other; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past". Further, Option E uses the unidiomatic construction "admiration of"; please remember, "admiration for" is the correct, idiomatic construction. Additionally, Option E incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "not only A ("as a person") and B ("as a politician")"; please remember, “not only A but also B” is the correct, idiomatic usage; A must be parallel to B.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



To understand the concept of "Past Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

A. MK.Gandhi the person and also AS a politicial is NOT parallel.
B. Correct parallelism.
C. not only needs but also ESSENTIALLY
D. as a person and as also a politician is NOT parallel. Also admiration of is weird/awkward.
E. Not only needs but also. Also a problem with the use of "admiration of"

In this question, I was able to eliminate A,D and E.
But strucked between B and C, I chose B, dont know why, but the explanation here why C i wrong, I am unable to get the catch.

Mike,

Is it necessary that the in the idiom Not only X but also Y, X and Y should have same structure.
Ex: In the correct version mentioned by you Bengal-born writer, philosopher, and educator Rabindranath Tagore had the greatest admiration for Mohandas K.Gandhi not only as a person and as a politician, but also as an expert in blah blah blah.

X -> As a person and as a politician
Y-> as an expert

So X is a list of two elements but Y is a single element.

Please advise...

Dear ygdrasil24,
I'm happy to respond.

In the idiom "not only X but also Y", it is very important that X and Y are in parallel. It's very important to remember --- parallelism is fundamentally not a grammatical structure but a logical structure. The two elements in parallel must be playing logically the same role, and part of that is having the same grammatical form.
Here, both X and Y describe roles that Gandhi had, or ways that his contemporaries might look at him. One way to look at him was "as a person and as a politician." Another way to look at him was "as an expert in blah blah blah." It's fine that the first one has two elements and the second only has one. Never let yourself become fundamentalist about parallelism. It's not about creating perfect symmetry purely at the level of individual grammatical units --- rather, it's about the overall flow of the logic. If you pay attention to the grammar and ignore the logic, you will miss the forest for the trees.

Here's a recent post on parallelism:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/dropping-c ... -the-gmat/

I hope all this helps.
Mike

I get that option B is correct and understand all the reasons why.

But this sentence has an issue that is throwing me off.
....R Tagore had the greatest admiration for...., but Tagore was also ....

Can some one please explain how this verb-tense is correct?

Does the HAD show that that there was first admiration and Then there WAS skepticism?
Is this the timeline being conveyed by the meaning of this sentence?

Dear vingmat001,
I'm happy to respond.
Both verbs "had" and "was" are in the simple past tense.
The structure "he was" is the simple past tense of "he is."
The structure "he had" is the simple past tense of "he has."
Yes, the word "had" can appear as an auxiliary verb in a number of fancier tenses, such as the present perfect tense, but on its own, it's just a simple past tense of an ordinary verb.

Yesterday, I had one cat. Today, I had three. Before yesterday, I had had no cats at all.

The three sentences, respective, show the simple present, simple past, and past perfect, of the verb "to have." Obviously, the "had had" is a little awkward, even though 100% correct, so you will not see this on the GMAT.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

A. for Mohandas K. Gandhi the person and also as a politician, but Tagore had been- awkward
B. for Mohandas K.Gandhi as a person and as a politician, but Tagore was also - correct idomatic style, parallel and concise
C. for Mohandas K.Gandhi not only as a person and as a politician, but Tagore was also - idiom not used correctly - not parallel
D. of Mohandas K.Gandhi as a person and as also a politician, but Tagore was - use of "of"
E. of Mohandas K.Gandhi not only as a person and as a politician, but Tagore had also been-use of "of"
Still waiting for my first kudos

Hello

I'm sorry, I know all of the other choices are wrong but I cannot understand the usage of " also" in choice B
but TAGORE was "also"... is strange for me... we don't have any thing before to intend the meaning of " also"
there is contrast not similarity

Bengal - born writer, philosopher, and educator Rabindranath Tagore had the greatest admiration for Mohandas K. Gandhi the person and also as a politician, but Tagore had been skeptical of Gandhi's form of nationalism and his conservative opinions about India's cultural traditions

A. for Mohandas K. Gandhi the person and also as a politician, but Tagore had been
B. for Mohandas K.Gandhi as a person and as a politician, but Tagore was also
C. for Mohandas K.Gandhi not only as a person and as a politician, but Tagore was also
D. of Mohandas K.Gandhi as a person and as also a politician, but Tagore was
E. of Mohandas K.Gandhi not only as a person and as a politician, but Tagore had also been


see soodia => here u can see "AND" { Mohandas K. Gandhi the person and also as a politician}

Now in parallelism using "and" => what is written after end => as a as a politician (NOUN)
so same should come before => as a person

as a person AND as a politician is a parallel structure.

Therefore ans is B

Let me know if still it is not clear.

Hi soodia, it's possible that you are confusing also with not only but also. The latter is used to emphasize similarity.

also has no such mandate to be used only for similarity. For example, following would be correct:

Peter admired Jane for her skills, but also envied her.

However, following would be incorrect:

Not only did Peter admire Jane for her skills, but also envied her.

Another officially correct example of this nature that comes to mind:

The systematic clearing of forests in the United States created farmland (especially in the Northeast) and gave consumers relatively inexpensive houses and furniture, but it also caused erosion and very quickly deforested whole regions.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana has a handy example of difference between but and not only but also. Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.

Thank you for your consideration
but in both of your examples, the subjects are the same.
Peter admired Jane for her skills, but (he) also envied her.
and in second example " The systematic clearing of forests in the United States" in the subject.

but in our example S1 is Benegal and S2 is Tagore
I'm confused about using "also" when we compare their view. one of the admire Gandi and another has a skeptical view of him....

Hi soodia, in your example as well, S1 and S2 are same.

S1 is actually Tagore (and not Bengal).

Bengal - born writer, philosopher, and educator Rabindranath Tagore had the greatest admiration for Mohandas K. Gandhi the person and also as a politician, but Tagore had been skeptical of Gandhi's form of nationalism and his conservative opinions about India's cultural traditions


A. for Mohandas K. Gandhi the person and also as a politician, but Tagore had been - usage of past perfect had been is incorrect
B. for Mohandas K.Gandhi as a person and as a politician, but Tagore was also - Correct
C. for Mohandas K.Gandhi not only as a person and as a politician, but Tagore was also - not only…and is unidiomatic
D. of Mohandas K.Gandhi as a person and as also a politician, but Tagore was - use of “admiration of” is incorrect ; the use of “also” after ‘and’ creates redundancy
E. of Mohandas K.Gandhi not only as a person and as a politician, but Tagore had also been - use of “admiration of” is incorrect ; not only…and is unidiomatic ; usage of past perfect had been is incorrect


Answer B

Hello Skywalker18,

You have presented a good analysis of this official sentence. Keep up the good job.

I would just like to add some thoughts with regards to the usage of the idiom not only X but also Y in Choice C and E.

According to you, these choices use the incorrect idiom not only X and Y. But if you pay attention, these choice use but also.

IMHO, use of not only X but also Y is not feasible in the context of this sentence because this sentence intends to present a contrast - one positive emotion and one negative emotion.

The idiom not only X but only Y is used to present two information about the same entity that are in the same direction. So, even if this sentence would have used the idiom not only X but also Y correctly, this idiom would not have conveyed the intended contrast.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

mikemcgarry or any experts

can i generalise if has, have, had followed by past participle then it is stating the perfect tense, if not it is acting as normal verb with respective tense.

thanks

Cheryn This is generally true, yes. That's how you build the present perfect tense. Just watch out for cases in which have/has if followed by what looks like a past participle, but is really serving as an adjective:

*She has extended time on the test.
*Our client has unparalleled command of the latest music production software.
*Some people have elongated ears.

In all three cases above, the -ed word modifies the following noun and does not serve as a verb at all. Note that "extended" and "elongated" can serve as verbs in other contexts, but "unparalleled" would only ever be an adjective. One can't "unparallel" something.