Hello Everyone!
Let's take a closer look at this question to figure out how we should tackle it. First, here is the original question, with any major differences between the options highlighted in
orange:
Bengal-born writer, philosopher, and educator Rabindranath Tagore had the greatest admiration
for Mohandas K. Gandhi the person and also as a politician, but Tagore had been skeptical of Gandhi's form of nationalism and his conservative opinions about India's cultural traditions
(A)
for Mohandas K. Gandhi
the person and also as a politician, but Tagore
had been(B)
for Mohandas K.Gandhi
as a person and as a politician, but Tagore
was also(C)
for Mohandas K.Gandhi
not only as a person and as a politician, but Tagore
was also(D)
of Mohandas K.Gandhi
as a person and as also a politician, but Tagore
was (E)
of Mohandas K.Gandhi
not only as a person and as a politician, but Tagore
had also beenAfter a quick glance over the options, a few key differences jump out at us:
1. How they begin: admiration for vs. admiration of (idiomatic rules)
2. How to handle describing Gahdhi as a person and politician (possibly parallelism?)
3. How they end: had been vs. was (verb tense)The quickest way to rule out wrong options is to find something on the list that will eliminate 2-3 options. For us, this means dealing with #1 on our list: admiration for vs. admiration of.
The rule in English is that people have
admiration for other people - they do NOT have
admiration of other people. So let's see which options do this correctly:
(A)
for Mohandas K. Gandhi the person and also as a politician, but Tagore had been
(B)
for Mohandas K.Gandhi as a person and as a politician, but Tagore was also
(C)
for Mohandas K.Gandhi not only as a person and as a politician, but Tagore was also
(D)
of Mohandas K.Gandhi as a person and as also a politician, but Tagore was
(E)
of Mohandas K.Gandhi not only as a person and as a politician, but Tagore had also been
There you go - we can eliminate options D & E because they don't follow the proper idiomatic rule for "admiration for."Now that we have 3 options left, let's move on to #2 on our list: how to describe Gandhi. When listing 2 or more items, such as the qualities of a person, we MUST use parallel format whenever possible. Let's take a closer look at options A, B, and C to determine if they use parallel wording or structure:
(A) for Mohandas K. Gandhi
the person and also
as a politician, but Tagore had been -->
NOT PARALLEL(B) for Mohandas K.Gandhi
as a person and
as a politician, but Tagore was also -->
PARALLEL(C) for Mohandas K.Gandhi not only
as a person and
as a politician, but Tagore was also -->
PARALLELSo, we can eliminate option A because it does not use parallel structure when describing both traits of Gandhi.Now we're only left with 2 options. Let's take a closer look at both, and see if we can spot any other problems:
(B) for Mohandas K.Gandhi as a person and as a politician, but Tagore was also
This option is
CORRECT! It uses the proper idiom for "admiration for" a person, it uses parallel structure, and it doesn't have any other issues we can spot.
(C) for Mohandas K.Gandhi not only as a person and as a politician, but Tagore was also
This answer is
INCORRECT because it doesn't use the proper format of the idiomatic structure "not only X, but also Y." Any time you see the phrase "not only" in a sentence, there MUST be a phrase that starts with "but also" with nothing in between the words! It's a tricky one to catch, yet it's a common idiom that pops up on the GMAT exam!
There you have it! Option B is our correct choice! By choosing to focus on simple differences between the options, we found the best option quickly!Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.
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