Quote:
n 1840, Roger Simpson began his translation of the Prospero, a work that, taking him eight years until completion, and that literary critic James White, Simpson’s contemporary, pronounced the greatest translation in any language.
A. his translation of the Prospero, a work that, taking him eight years until completion, and that literary critic James White, Simpson’s contemporary, pronounced
B. his translation of the Prospero, a work that took him eight years to complete and that literary critic James White, Simpson’s contemporary, pronounced
C. his translation of the Prospero, a work that had taken eight years to complete and that literary critic James White, Simpson’s contemporary, pronounced it as
D. translating the Prospero, a work that took eight years until completion and that literary critic James White, Simpson’s contemporary, pronounced it as
E. translating the Prospero, a work that had taken eight years to complete and literary critic James White, Simpson’s contemporary, pronounced it
A: clause before "and" has verb missing. taking by itself isn't a verb (-ing verbs always need supporting verbs like is/was to function as verb)
B: right answer (corrects the errors in choice A)
C: verb tense error. began is written in simple past tense, but complete is written as past perfect (had taken 8 years). The earlier of the 2 events is usually written as past perfect. Here, that would imply the completion happened before he began the work, which is nonsensical
D and E: they have the same error. The word translation has been converted to "translating" which is now being used as a verb. So, "a work" has no logical noun antecedents. Hence, D and E are wrong