sharmasneha wrote:
Biographer David McCullough presented an in-depth study of Harry S. Truman's rise to the presidency, his leadership during his 8 years in office, and his return to private life in the acclaimed tome, Truman.
(A) Biographer David McCullough presented an in-depth study of Harry S. Truman's rise to the presidency, his leadership during his 8 years in office, and his return to private life in the acclaimed tome, Truman
(B) In the acclaimed tome Truman, biographer David McCullough presented an in-depth study of Harry S. Truman's rise to the presidency, his leadership during his 8 years in office, and his return to private life
(C) Biographer David McCullough, writing in the acclaimed tome Truman, presented an in-depth study of Harry S. Truman's rise to the presidency, leadership during his 8 years in office, and returning to private life
(D) An in-depth study of Harry S. Truman's rise to the presidency, his leadership during his 8 years in office, and his return to private life is presented by biographer David McCullough in the acclaimed tome Truman
(E) An in-depth study of Harry S. Truman, presented by biographer David McCullough, covers his rise to the presidency, his leadership during his 8 years in office, and his return to private life in the acclaimed tome, Truman
Dear
sharmasneha,
I'm happy to respond.
In all honesty, I don't think this is a very good SC question. Ultimately, it is not GMAT-like in its crispness. A good GMAT SC has one answer that is unambiguously right, and four that are unambiguously wrong. This question doesn't meet this standard.
Choices
(C) -
(E) are clearly wrong. That's good. Choice
(C) is redundant, telling us that the biographer was writing in his book --- the "
writing" and "
presented" are redundant. Choices
(D) &
(E) each have a main verb without a main subject. Those three are unambiguously wrong.
The problem is the split between
(A) &
(B). Choice
(B), what they intend as the OA, is perfectly clear. In
(A), one perhaps could argue that with the final phrase, "
in the acclaimed tome, Truman," it might be unclear whether all three elements in parallel, or just the last element, are presented in the tome. Maybe one could argue that, but it's a stretch. Choice
(A) could be 100% correct on the GMAT if
(B) were not there. It is far too close to correct to be a wrong answer. That is the big problem with this question. If you were confused between
(A) and
(B), that's not a failing on your part: that was a failing on the part of the author of the question.
You may find these blogs revealing:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/kaplan-new ... ok-review/https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/kaplan-gma ... ok-review/Here's a high quality GMAT SC practice question:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/3604Does all this make sense?
Mike