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Bunuel
Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries
(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts
(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis
(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries
(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used


 


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(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries
Correct. This is clear and concise

(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts
Incorrect. 'it' here is vague

(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis
Incorrect. Sentence is awkward and less clear than A

(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries
A is better in terms of being more concise than D otherwise grammatically okay

(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used
Incorrect. It's not clear who "they" refers to, and "used" is unnecessary.
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Bunuel
Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries
(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts
(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis
(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries
(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used


 


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The correct sentence is (D) Using accounts of his contemporaries. It is grammatically correct because it uses the present participle “using” as a gerund to modify the noun “academicians” and create a participial phrase that functions as an adverbial phrase of manner. The phrase “based on accounts of his contemporaries” is also grammatically correct but it is not as concise as the phrase “using accounts of his contemporaries”.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries - This sentence is grammatically correct but it is not as concise as the phrase “using accounts of his contemporaries”.

(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts - This sentence is incorrect because it uses the present participle “basing” as a gerund to modify the pronoun “it” which is unclear and does not have a clear antecedent.

(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis - This sentence is incorrect because it uses a prepositional phrase “with accounts of his contemporaries” to modify the noun “basis” which is awkward and unclear.

(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used - This sentence is incorrect because it uses a prepositional phrase “by the account of his contemporaries” to modify the pronoun “they” which is unclear and does not have a clear antecedent.
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the answer is D because the underlying part should modify the subject which is the academicians.
Hence the academicians use is make sense
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Imo D is correct as they must have used Shakespeare's contemporaries' accounts to gather information about him since there were no first hand accounts provided by him that they could have used. Option a could not be the right ans as his contemporaries did not provide accounts about him exclusively but about themselves which were then used by academicians to get a rough timeline of Shakespeare's life
Answer D

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Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries
(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts
(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis
(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries
(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used
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Understanding the meaning of the question is important to solve it. We cant separate answer choices by the use of pronoun '' his'' as all the choices contain it. Let's take a look at answer choices.

A- ''Based on'' modifies ''Academics''. It is incorrect. Academics cant be based on accounts. Illogic meaning. A is out.
B - ''Basing'' modifies ''Academics''. Intended meaning of the answer choice is distorted. B is out.
C - Use of ''with'' as a modifier is not preferred in gmat. Moreover, ''used for a basis'' is not correct. C is out
D - ''Using'' modifies ''Academics''. It gives precise meaning. Let's keep D.
E - Answer choice has some redundant portions such as '' they used'' , but we can compare it to other answer choices. Keep E.

Between Dand E. E is wordy and D gives more precise meaning than E does.

D is our winner.
Hope it helps.
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Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries - time sequence issue; based on x... have reconstructed y

(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts - it? unclear

(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis - awkward; we have better choices

(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries - CORRECT

(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used - does not work with the non-underlined portion
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Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

IMO A

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries - correct
(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts - present tense basing it is at odds with past tense construction of sentence
(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis - changes the meaning
(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries - using it doesn’t work in this situation
(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used - they used is repetitive with academicians
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Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries: Incorrect use of Verb-ed modifier
(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts: Incorrect, "it" lacks antecedent
(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis: Incorrect, wordy
(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries: Correct, Verb-ing modifier placed correct
(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used: Incorrect, awkward construction

IMO D.

Bunuel
Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries
(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts
(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis
(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries
(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used


 


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Academicians modify the phrase using accounts ….

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The answer is D
Statement A uses based on and have in the later sentence. Hence there is incorrect tense usage here.
Statement B uses basing it which is incorrect tense to describe something that happened in the past.
Statement C uses with accounts- that leads to ambiguity over the logical meaning of the sentence.
Statement D uses using and have which is logically parallel and uses the correct tense
Statement E uses By the accounts which is logically incorrect
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Based on some thing, Basing on something, By the accounts are examples of incorrect modifiers in GMAT.
D is the correct answer.
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subject is William Shakespeare

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries
meaning issue
(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts it causing modifier issue
(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis for a basis usage is incorrect
(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries correct option
(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used
meaning issue

OPTION D is correct

Bunuel
Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries
(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts
(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis
(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries
(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used


 


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Option (A) "Based on accounts of his contemporaries" is the clearest and most concise phrasing, effectively conveying the information about how academicians have reconstructed the timeline of William Shakespeare's life and career.

Option (B) "Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts" introduces the pronoun "it," which is unnecessary and slightly awkward. The original sentence already provides a clear subject ("academicians") without the need for an additional pronoun.

Option (C) "With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis" is wordy and less clear than option (A). The phrase "used for a basis" is less direct and can be simplified to "based on" in option (A).

Option (D) "Using accounts of his contemporaries" is a viable option, but it slightly changes the emphasis of the sentence. Option (A) is more effective in emphasizing that the reconstruction is "based on" accounts.

Option (E) "By the account of his contemporaries they used" is grammatically incorrect and awkward. It introduces unnecessary repetition and lacks clarity.

Therefore, the most effective sentence is option (A).
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Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries It somewhat confusingly modifies academicians
(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts
(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis Unnecessarily wordy
(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries Correct
(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used Unnecessarily wordy
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Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries (academicians are not based on accounts)
(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts (Wrong modification, it has non antedecent)
(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis (wordy: a very clunky way to express the fact)
(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries (correct -ing modifer is perfect here)
(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used (Not correct as per meaning. the right meaning is that acad, using the accounts of his contemp have reconstructed...)
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Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries
Incorrect. In this choice the modifier 'Based on accounts of his contemporaries' incorrectly modifies academicians .Academicians were not themselves based on accounts.

(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts
Incorrect. 'It' does not have an antecedent.

(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis
Incorrect. For me, the usage 'used for a basis' is doubtful. Correct usage could have been 'used as a basis' . 'With....' sometimes acts as a modifier. But we have a better option (D) available . So this choice will be rejected.

(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries
Correct '. Using accounts of his contemporaries' properly modifies academicians . Also the singular pronoun 'his' has only one valid antecedent 'William Shakespeare' .

(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used
Incorrect. 'They used' refers to academicians and so this choice suggests that the contemporaries were used by the academicians . This does not make sense as it alters the meaning.
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Bunuel
Based on accounts of his contemporaries, academicians have reconstructed a rough timeline of the life and career of William Shakespeare, who left behind virtually no firsthand accounts of his childhood in Stratford-upon-Avon or career in London.

(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries
(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts
(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis
(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries
(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used


 


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(A) Based on accounts of his contemporaries

The ed modifier phrase modifies the nearest noun academicians and gives an illogical meaning that the academicians were based on something. Eliminate.

(B) Basing it on his contemporaries’ accounts

Incorrect opening modifier phrase. Eliminate.

(C) With accounts of his contemporaries used for a basis

The opening modifier is incorrect. used for a basis gives an illogical meaning. Eliminate.

(D) Using accounts of his contemporaries

Looks correct.

(E) By the account of his contemporaries they used

Incorrect prepositional modifier. By the account is incorrect. Eliminate.

IMO D
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