@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

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 ?

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

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

Concept tested: Modifiers, Meaning, Verb Tenses
Difficulty: 650
Illustration: Participial phrases, acting as opening modifiers, must be followed by the noun they modify. This mistake is committed in A and D.
In C, “being” is used as an awkward modifier which is never correct in the GMAT (however other uses of “being” is permissible).
E makes an error of verb tenses which is illustrated in the tip below.
B is the correct answer.

Tip. When perfect tenses are used, it is better to visualize a tense timeline. We know that the past perfect must have happened sometime before the simple past (which must be present in the sentence) and present perfect must have started before the simple present.
In E, the timeline suggests:
Mullers career is still going on (present perfect always signifies an action which started in the past but continues in the present with respect to a present tense in the same sentence), but rather than a simple present tense, the sentence uses a simple past tense “culminated” which breaks the timeline.
Hence E is incorrect.

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 ?

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.