Pack 2 Q5 After escaping from slavery, Harriet Tubman

Question

Pack 2, Question 5 of 5 
After escaping from slavery, Harriet  Tubman, who would go on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve  as a nurse and spy for the Union Army, and work with Susan B. Anthony to promote women’s suffrage.

A. Tubman, who would go on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve

B. Tubman, going on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve

C. Tubman, going on to free other slaves, would also go on to become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, plus serving

D. Tubman would go on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve

E. Tubman would go on to free other slaves, becoming the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, plus serving

◀ Pack 2, Question 4  
 ▶ Pack 3, Question 1

⏏ Question Pack Home

48 Hour Window To Win An $85 EMPOWERgmat Tuition Credit (1 Month Free!)   
Share your explanation!  The GMAT Club member with the most verified Kudos  in total on the 5 question SC Pack 2 question pack will  win an $85 EMPOWERgmat tuition credit , which will entitle the winner to a full month of complete access to the EMPOWERgmat system. Even if you're not sure about your answer or your rationale, share your explanation to help boost your learning and earn a chance to win.

To be eligible, your explanation must:
 be submitted within the 48 hour window after this post was created
should explain your reasoning why the answer you chose is correct, and why the other 4 options are incorrect within 48 hours of this post

The OA and official explanation will be held until the 48 hour window has lapsed.

sampriya · Answer

A. Tubman, who would go on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  serve

B. Tubman, going on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  serve

C. Tubman, going on to free other slaves, would also go on to become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  plus serving

D. Tubman would go on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  serve

E. Tubman would go on to free other slaves, becoming the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  plus serving

when we first notice the bolded words we realise there is probably a verb error

notice the non-underlined part  and work with Susan B Anthony...  we should make the undelined part parallel to  and work  therefore should be serve

eliminate C and E

between A/B/D

options A and B do not have a verb for the subject

Only D is parallel and has a verb for the subject Harriet Tubman

saukrit · Answer

IMO D is the correct answer.
  1. Parallelism  
There is a 4 item list going on here, wherein Harriet Tubman
 
 would go on to free other slaves,  
 become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  
 serve as a nurse and spy for the Union Army, and  
 work with Susan B. Anthony to promote women’s suffrage.

2. Serve vs Serving  
The non-underlined part of the list "work with" clearly depicts that all elements must be in Simple present. Hence Serving is wrong. We have A, b and D as potential answers now

A. Tubman,   who   would go on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve    Misplaced modifier error here. Unnecessary  who  distorts the meaning of the sentence.  
 B. Tubman,   going   on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve 
  C. Tubman, going on to free other slaves, would also go on to become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, plus serving     No continuos form needed in the parallel list  
D. Tubman would go on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve
  E. Tubman would go on to free other slaves, becoming the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, plus serving

Shivan21 · Answer

IMO D is the correct answer because of the above explanation. thanks.

snoep · Answer

After escaping from slavery, Harriet Tubman, who would go on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve as a nurse and spy for the Union Army, and work with Susan B. Anthony to promote women’s suffrage.

A. Tubman,  who  would go on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve
incomplete thought. After escaping, Harriet, who would go on... expression who would go on and the rest of the complete sentence seems to be used to describe Harriet instead of stating that after escaping, she did A, B, C

B. Tubman,  going on  to free other slaves,  become  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  serve 
there is no verb in this sentence.. 'going on' is modifier and become is not the verb

C. Tubman,  going on  to free other slaves,  would also  go on  to become  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  plus serving 
parallelism is not achieved..

D. Tubman would  go  on to free other slaves,  become  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  serve 
would go is parallel with other verbs instead of going on in previous answer choices.
rest of the verbs also are parallel

E. Tubman  would go  on to free other slaves,  becoming  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  plus serving 
not only this is not parallel among - would go on, becoming ....plus serving.. it also changes the meaning suggesting she would go on to free other slaves, eventually becoming first woman to lead..

D is the answer!

interesting I have never seen 'plus' before

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hello Everyone!

Apologies for the delay - we accidentally added the wrong explanation to this question! So let's set things straight and get to how we should tackle this question:

After reviewing our answer choices, we see that most of the differences revolve around   verb forms  , either the -ing form or the base form. When dealing with choices that involve verbs, it is important to look at the portion of the sentence that isn’t underlined.

After escaping from slavery, Harriet  Tubman, who would go on to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve  as a nurse and spy for the Union Army, and work with Susan B. Anthony to promote women’s suffrage.

After “and,” we see the verb “work.” When verbs or verb forms are used in a series, as they are in this sentence, each verb or verb form should demonstrate parallelism.  The verbs that form the series are “free,” “become,” and “serve.”  Since we cannot change the form of “work,” then for the rest of the sentence to be parallel, an -ing form should not be used.

A. Tubman, who would go on to  free  other slaves,  become  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  serve 
B. Tubman, going on to  free  other slaves,  become  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  serve 
C. Tubman, going on to  free  other slaves, would also go on to  become  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, plus  serving 
D. Tubman would go on to  free  other slaves,  become  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  serve 
E. Tubman would go on to  free  other slaves,  becoming  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, plus  serving

Options C and E use the -ing form, so these answer choices are not parallel.  They cannot be the best answers.

Now let's focus on our remaining options and see what we can rule out:

A. Tubman , who would go on to free other slaves,  become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve

Option A uses the relative pronoun “who,” to create a relative clause. Because the “who” is preceded by a comma, this clause becomes nonessential. Not including this clause should not change the meaning of the sentence. But without this clause, the sentence reads “Harriet Tubman become the first woman . . .” This does not make any sense; “become” does not work with the third-person singular subject “Harriet Tubman.” Option A cannot be correct.

B. Tubman,  going on  to free other slaves, become the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War, serve

Option B uses the phrase “going on to free other slaves.” We have an -ing verb (going) and an infinitive (to free), so there is no verb left in the sentence, because all the other verbs in the series are infinitives matched to be parallel with “to free.” This cannot be the correct answer.

D. Tubman  would go  on to  free  other slaves,  become  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  serve

We have eliminated four answer choices. Option D includes the verb “would go,” and all the verb forms in the series are infinitives so they are parallel.

There you have it - option D is the best answer!

Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  sampriya !

You cracked the code on another question! Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  saukrit !

You cracked the code on another question! Great job showing your work process too! Kudos to you!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Well done,  snoep !

While you did get to the right answer, the parallelism list you're looking at is slightly off. These are the listed items that needed to be parallel:

D. Tubman would go on to  free  other slaves,  become  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  serve

The verb "would go" didn't really need to match the list items - it just needed to be a verb so that the sentence was complete.

Kudos to you for getting the correct choice! Feel free to tag us at  EMPOWERgmatVerbal  if you have any questions!

harsh8686 · Answer

Can you post the official answer? None of the replies have cogent explanations.

Also, can you please explain the intended meaning? Why the correct answer choice is structured hypothetical? I thought, we are talking about something that has already happened in the past. Why there is a need to be hypothetical? Aren't the facts supposed to be presented in present tense?

Lastly, can you please explain why option B is wrong.
B) Tubman,  going on to free other slaves ,  become  the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War,  serve 
Everything seems parallel. You can argue that participle phrase - "going on to free other slaves" - is wrong but after comparing other choices, I thought this one is the best.

snoep · Answer

EMPOWERgmatVerbal  yep, agreed! thanks for highlighting that! would go on to free...., would go on to become..

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hello  harsh8686 !

We posted an explanation just now, so take a look at it and let us know if you still have questions. Make sure to tag us at  EMPOWERgmatVerbal  so we can respond back as quickly as possible!

VerbalBot · Answer

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.

Pack 2 Q5 After escaping from slavery, Harriet Tubman

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Pack 2 Q5 After escaping from slavery, Harriet Tubman

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards