Dear Friends,
Here is a detailed explanation to this question-
LithiumIon wrote:
While Noble Sissle may be best known for his collaboration with Eubie Blake, as both a vaudeville performer and as a lyricist for songs and Broadway musicals, also enjoying an independent career as a singer with such groups as Hahn's Jubilee Singers.
(A) and as a lyricist for songs and Broadway musicals, also enjoying
(B) and writing lyrics for songs and Broadway musicals, also enjoying
(C) and a lyricist for songs and Broadway musicals, he also enjoyed
(D) as well as writing lyrics for songs and Broadway musicals, he also enjoyed
(E) as well as a lyricist for songs and Broadway musicals, he had also enjoyed
Concepts tested here: Tenses + Parallelism + Grammatical Construction• “both A and B" or "A as well as B" are the correct usages; A and B must be parallel and comparable.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past.
• The past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past”.
A: This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as “While Noble Sissle may be best known for his collaboration with Eubie Blake” is a dependent clause and “also enjoying an independent career as a singer with such groups as Hahn's Jubilee Singers” is a modifying phrase, there is no independent subject for the modifiers to act upon. Further, Option A fails to maintain parallelism between A (“a vaudeville performer”) and B (“as a lyricist”) in the idiomatic construction “both A and B”; remember, “both A and B" is the correct usage; A and B must be parallel and comparable.
B: This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as “While Noble Sissle may be best known for his collaboration with Eubie Blake” is a dependent clause and “also enjoying an independent career as a singer with such groups as Hahn's Jubilee Singers” is a modifying phrase, there is no independent subject for the modifiers to act upon. Further, Option B fails to maintain parallelism between A (“a vaudeville performer”) and B (“writing lyrics”) in the idiomatic construction “both A and B”; remember, “both A and B" is the correct usage; A and B must be parallel and comparable.
C: Correct. This answer choice correctly uses the dependent clause “While Noble Sissle may be best known for his collaboration with Eubie Blake” to act upon the independent clause “he also enjoyed an independent career as a singer...”, forming a complete sentence. Further, Option C correctly uses the simple past tense verb "enjoyed" to refer to an action that concluded in the past. Additionally, Option C correctly uses the idiomatic construction “both A and B”, maintaining parallelism between A (“a vaudeville performer”) and (“a lyricist”).
D: This answer choice incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “both A as well as B” and fails to maintain parallelism between A (“a vaudeville performer”) and B (“writing lyrics”); remember, “both A and B" or "A as well as B" are the correct usages; A and B must be parallel and comparable.
E: This answer choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb “had…enjoyed” to refer to an action that concluded in the past; remember, the simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past, and the past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is used when a sentence contains two actions in the past; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past". Further, Option E incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “both A as well as B”; remember, “both A and B" or "A as well as B" are the correct usages; A and B must be parallel and comparable.
Hence, C is the best answer choice.To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):
To understand the concept of "Past Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):
All the best!
Experts' Global Team