Spanning more than fifty years, Friedrich Muller began his career in

Question

Spanning more than fifty years, Friedrich  Muller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as  a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.

(A) Muller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as

(B) Muller’s career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as

(C) Muller’s career began with the unpromising apprenticeship of being

(D) Muller had begun his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being

(E) the career of Muller has begun with an unpromising apprenticeship of

AkshdeepS · Answer

(A)  Muller began  his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as

(B) Muller’s career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as

(C) Muller’s career  began with the  unpromising apprenticeship  of being

(D)  Muller had begun  his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being

(E) the career of Muller  has begun with  an unpromising apprenticeship of

A. "Muller" is wrong after comma

B. Correct

C. "of being"

D. "Muller had" is worng

E. wrong tense " has begun"

mahi816 · Answer

@souvik101990@mikemcgarry@GMATPill

Spanning more than fifty years, Friedrich Muller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.

(A) Muller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as 
(B) Muller’s career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as 
(C) Muller’s career began with the unpromising apprenticeship of being 
(D) Muller had begun his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being 
(E) the career of Muller has begun with an unpromising apprenticeship of

In option B) both began and culminated are in past tense, but career began first .

Had should be used right?...had begun and culminated.

Please help in clearing my doubt

AkshdeepS · Answer

There is no need for "had begun" in this sentence as beginning of career can be first year, or may be first two years or more.

For example, If I say : At the beginning of my career I won many awards. This timeline can be extended to 1 year, 2 year or may be 5 years. I may have won all the awards in first 5 years. Therefore, it is not necessary to use "had begun", because in this case I am winning awards at the same time when my career is beginning. In such cases you need to find some other errors.

Use "had" when one action of the past finished before another action of the past.

goaltop30mba · Answer

option b is a clear winner as the rest of the options clearly have more errors, but i have a question.

the phrase *as a sanskrit scholar" has to have a doer right? how can a career be a sanskrit scholar? i understand that we cannot use muller as he cannot span for 50 years. Option B is just the best bet.

could any of the experts help me understand this ?

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  aditliverpoolfc ,

If you are asking about the word  career ,  career as X  is a very common way to talk about someone's job/role. For example:

His career as a midfielder came to an end.

Here we are assuming that the  his  has something to point to, but the more important point is that this sentence is  not  telling us that  his career  was  a midfielder . It just means that particular ~phase or role is over. That is, he may be a coach now, or a commentator (we don't know, but the point is that he is no longer a midfielder).

Aman1012 · Answer

can anyone help me with option A . like what is the correct version of A can be the answer to the question

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Hi Aman

The sentence begins with a modifier, "Spanning more than fifty years...", which is not in the underlined portion (meaning it cannot be modified in any way). Since a modifier must be placed right next to whatever it modifies, what follows this modifier has to be something which can logically "span more than fifty years".

Option (A) places "Friedrich Muller" as the noun being modified, which does not make sense as Friedrich Muller, a person, cannot "span more than fifty years". The most logical noun to be modified in this context is "Friedrich Muller's career" and hence the underlined portion must begin with a reference to his "career".

We can modify option (A) as "Muller’s career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as" to make it correct. This is exactly what is stated in option (B)!

Hope this helps.

egmat · Answer

Hello Aman1012 , The very precise answer to your question is that Choice B is the correct version of Choice A that will be the correct answer to this official sentence as it takes care of the modifier error we see in Choice A. Thanks.

Shraddha

singd · Answer

Hi 
what if i consider the verbs to be in parallel. so, has culminated and has begun . then it would make sense, right? 
Am i missing something ?

MBAB123 · Answer

singd , I don't think that would make a lot of sense. As Souvick pointed out, perfect present signifies an action which started in the past but continues in the present. The beginning and culmination of the guy's career cannot be happening at the same time.

singd · Answer

HI 
Oh yeah , Thanks Brian123. This makes it a lot better. I got lost in making things nice and grammatically parallel that I lost track of the most important element, Meaning.

sahayrohit · Answer

Spanning more than fifty years , Friedrich  Muller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as  a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.

(A) Muller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as -  Spanning more than fifty years  is modifying Friedrich Muller’s career and not Friedrich Muller, hence A is out.

(B) Muller’s career began in an unpromising apprenticeship as -  Correct ans B

(C) Muller’s career began with the unpromising apprenticeship of being - use of  being  is incorrect. C is out

(D) Muller had begun his career with the unpromising apprenticeship of being -  same as A , hence D is out,

(E) the career of Muller has begun with an unpromising apprenticeship of -  Not parallel  - has begun is present, culminated is past. hence E is out

Mavisdu1017 · Answer

Hello expert,
I saw many say present perfect in E is wrong, cuz the passage uses simple past “culminated”. But I have a doubt: could it be “has begun...and (has) culminated...”? 
Pls help. Much thanks.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Mavisdu1017 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the use of the present perfect tense is incorrect here because the sentence refers to actions that concluded in the past; logically, if the later action of "culminated" is an action that concluded in the past and does not continue ot affect the present, then the related action of "began" that concluded further in the past cannot continue to affect the present either.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Mavisdu1017 · Answer

Sorry expert, you didn’t address my question. What I asked is how do you know the action concluded in the past?
What I understood is: his career HAS began in an unpromising apprenticeship and HAS culminated in virtually every honor. The second “HAS” is just omitted, so the action doesn’t conclude.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Hello  Mavisdu1017 ,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, the use of the present perfect tense implies that the action either concluded in the immediate past or that the action concluded at an indeterminate point in the past, but continues to affect the future.

In this sentence, we are talking about the beginning and end of a career; logically, of the two events only the one that takes place later in time can be in the present perfect tense: both the beginning and end of a career cannot take place in the immediate past, and if the career has already concluded, then we cannot say that its beginning continues to affect the present.

Thus, any answer choice that uses "has begun" is incorrect.

To understand the concept of "Present Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNmT9obXukI

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

GMATNinja · Answer

You're right that the "has" could be implied for the second verb, but the construction wouldn't work because of the logic of the timing of the actions.

If I write, "The game has begun," it implies that the game is still happening right now.

If I write, "The game has culminated," it means the game is over.

(To be fair, the present perfect can be a little bit confusing, and involves some grey area at times. In many cases, we can argue that the action is still going on in the present, but in other cases, it seems as though the action began in the past but has concluded. For example, if I write, "Tim has been shoveling the driveway for hours and his back is killing him," Tim is still shoveling. But if I write "Tim has shoveled the driveway and is now relaxing with a Miller High Life and a deep-fried Twinkie," he already finished a job that he started in the past. We have to use context to figure out what the verb tense is actually doing.)

All to say: we can't use both "has begun" and "has culminated" to refer to the same career. The first tells us the career is still happening, the second that the career is over. It has to be one or the other, right?

For more on GMAT verb tenses, check out  this sprawling old video  or  this shorter one .

I hope that clears things up!

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem: 
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that Friedrich Muller’s career spanned fifty years, began in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar, and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Modifiers + Tenses + Awkwardness/Redundancy

• In a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun; this is one of the most frequently tested concepts on GMAT sentence correction.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past. 
• The present perfect tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present.
• When the chronology is clear because of terms such as "before/after/when/earlier/later"…or because of clear mention of dates, the use of past perfect tense is not required, though not incorrect either.
• “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

A: 
1/ This answer choice incorrectly uses "Spanning more than fifty years" to modify "Friedrich Muller", illogically implying the   Friedrich Muller   spanned more than fifty years; the intended meaning is that Friedrich Muller's   career   spanned more than fifty years; remember, in a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.

B:   Correct. 
1/ This answer choice correctly uses "Spanning more than fifty years" to modify "Friedrich Muller’s career", conveying the intended meaning - that Friedrich Muller's   career   spanned more than fifty years.
2/ Option B correctly uses the simple past tense verb "begun" to refer to an action that concluded in the past. 
3/ Option B is free of any awkwardness or redundancy.

C: 
1/ This answer choice incorrectly uses the word "being", leading to awkwardness and redundancy; remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

D: 
1/ This answer choice incorrectly uses "Spanning more than fifty years" to modify "Friedrich Muller", illogically implying the   Friedrich Muller   spanned more than fifty years; the intended meaning is that Friedrich Muller's   career   spanned more than fifty years; remember, in a “phrase + comma + noun” construction, the phrase must correctly modify the noun.
2/ Option D redundantly uses the past perfect tense verb "had begun" alongside the terms "began" and "concluded"; remember, when the chronology is clear because of terms such as "before/after/when/earlier/later"…or because of clear mention of dates, use past perfect tense is not required, though not incorrect either. 
3/ Option D incorrectly uses the word "being", leading to awkwardness and redundancy; remember, “being” is only to be used when it is part of a noun phrase or represents the passive continuous verb tense; the use of passive continuous must be justified in the context.

E: 
1/ This answer choice incorrectly uses the present perfect tense verb "has begun" 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 present perfect tense is used to refer to actions that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATNTtugB9fM

To understand the concept of "Present Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNmT9obXukI

To understand the use of "Being" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlX2LKQlLTI

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

princeann · Answer

How do we know if Muller's career has ended? maybe his career is still ongoing? Then, a present perfect tense is acceptable? is there any other mistake in E

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

In (E), one quick thing that's awkward is what follows the comma. The sentence says:

Spanning more than 50 years,  Friedrich the career of Muller ...

All the best,

contact: gmatknight site

Spanning more than fifty years, Friedrich Muller began his career in

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Spanning more than fifty years, Friedrich Muller began his career in

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