Bunuel wrote:
Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, knew how to use a good story to generate good will.
(A) Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, knew
(B) Discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, Lincoln knew
(C) Lincoln, discovering the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned in young manhood before him, knew
(D) In young manhood Lincoln discovered the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him:
(E) Lincoln, discovered in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him, knew
You like a question even more when you get it right! Right?
My approach:
1) Read the sentence and understood that there are
two events happening in the past, so I instinctively started looking for
'had'2) Looking through the answer choices
Quote:
(A) Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, knew
>> cannot find the 'had', wrong tenses, eliminated
Quote:
(B) Discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, Lincoln knew
>> cannot find the 'had', wrong tenses, eliminated
Quote:
(C) Lincoln, discovering the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned in young manhood before him, knew
>> Alas! my beloved 'had', but the sentence seems to convey that the 'Yankee peddle learned in young manhood'. That is not what sentence wants to convey. The sentence clearly wants to convey that 'Lincoln had learned in young manhood'.
Quote:
(D) In young manhood Lincoln discovered the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him:
>> This sentence conveys the meaning very clearly. I really like this but as taught by
GMATNinja, I did not fall in love with this option, kept it alive and moved forward.
Quote:
(E) Lincoln, discovered in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him, knew
>> My first thought as soon as I read this was to compare the option with (D) and realise that (D) was much easier to understand. (I solely eliminated basis this but now I think I have better reason for elimination).
>> 'Discovered....' modifies Lincoln, that's fine. But, 'the secret that' is modifies young manhood. That is clearly wrong!
Confidently marked option (D) and moved to the next question