The artist Renoir’s last word was “flowers,” spoken as they arrange a

between C and D. I vote for D for being active.
" they" doesn't have antecedent.A and E out.
In B "had been" and "and" are unnecessary.

Hi guys,

IMO D

A. as they arranged a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden what's the referece of they?
B. as a bouquet of roses had been just picked from his garden and was being
arranged being
C. as a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden was being arranged being
D. during the arrangement of a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden Hold
E. while they arranged a bouquet of roses that had just been picked from his garden what's the referece of they?

OA and Source?

Thanks

IMO C - 'being arranged' properly characterizes the moment when 'flower' was pronounced

D seems to be redundant: 'during the arrangement...'
A,E - they has no reference
B - incorrect time usage - 'had been'

Generally, being is evil on the GMAT, unless we need to show the state one is in. This is one such situation and I will go with C.

A & E out for lack of reference to they.

B is out because of the past perfect.

D is out as during which does not make sense. During which means the entire time period. The words might be spoken any time. we need to show that both events happened at the same time.

My pick C

wow were do you guys find those questions anyways?

going with a fun C here is why:

"They" doesnt have any antecedent to map to. Eliminate A and E

B-Past perfect is not required as the different actions and their order of occurences is clear
( what I meant is you cant made bouquet before picking roses and you cant arrange them before you have roses.)

Event 1-Roses picked
Event 2-Bouquet made
Event 3- R* says

Now Eve


D-During the arrangement is clumsy

Choose C

My pick is C. A and E are out because "they" is ambiguous. B is wordy compared to other choices and as for D, "during the arrangement" uses an action noun, and verb usage is preferable to action noun usage.

A,E - "they" has not antecedent hence incorrect sentence construction.
B - Incorrect tense "had been"
D - Meaning issue - "Last words spoken was 'Flowers' during".
.
Only correct choice is C.

(C) is the only possible answer to the question.

(A) and (E) both contain the unsupported pronoun "they". Every pronoun on the GMAT will have an antecedent (the only exception to this rule is "it", which can appear in reference to the universe as a whole, e.g. "it is a nice day today").

We can also eliminate (B) for verb tense problems. "as" indicates that things are going on simultaneously, so switching to "had just been" is wrong.

(D) has modification issues. We need to remember that the part of the sentence after the underlined portion also has to make sense. Looking at the fragment:

"during the arrangement of a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden in a vase on his bedroom windowsill"

we see that (D) makes is sound as though the garden is in a vase on his bedroom windowsill, which makes no sense.

Only (C) gets everything in the sentence where it should be, uses the correct tenses and doesn't introduce any ambiguous pronouns.

As an aside, it's certainly correct that "being" is rarely correct on the GMAT. A good general rule of thumb is "other things being equal, don't pick choices with "being" in them". However, avoiding "being" is a style choice, so if the only gramatically correct choice uses the word, that choice will be correct.

A and E out; THEY has no antecedent and is ambiguous. At best, THEY refers to flowers, and such a reference is illogical.
B is out for wrong tense. HAD BEEN is past perfect tense, which is used when referring to a event in the past that precedes another event in the past.
D is out for modifier positions. ON HIS BEDROOM WINDOWSILL needs to touch ARRANGEMENT for clear meaning.
C is the correct answer, by POE.

Hello expert,

If in question, it is being mentioned 'they' without any reference, so will it be incorrect statement?

I'm not an expert, but I will take a shot at this:

With respect to pronouns, the GMAT likes to test whether the pronoun is being used correctly; what is the antecedent of the pronoun? The pronoun must make sense and agree in number with the pronoun.

Every time you see it, its, they, them or their check to see whether the pronoun is being used correctly.

Note that it is sometimes used correctly without an antecedent e.g.

It is a bad idea to stay up late the night before an exam.

The artist Renoir’s last word was “flowers,” spoken as they arranged a bouquet of roses just picked from his
garden in a vase on his bedroom window sill.

Plural pronoun “they” doesn’t have an antecedent here, as here author is just talking about the artist, and no mention has been made about any other actor. Hence A and E go out.

A. as they arranged a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden.

B. as a bouquet of roses had been just picked from his garden and was being arranged.
Past perfect tense “had been” isn’t required here for 2 reasons:
The events are clear explicitly, once the flowers are picked then they may be arranged.
“As” indicate that the actions are happening in the same time frame, then using the past perfect creates ambiguity.

C. as a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden was being arranged. CORRECT
Don’t use the shortcut of eliminating the choices with BEING, Being is not always incorrect.
Being is mostly correct while describing a process. So to verify just insert “in the process of” before “BEING” if the sentence still remains sensible then being is correctly used there.
For e.g. as a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden was (in the process of) being arranged.

D. during the arrangement of a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden.
READ THE NON-UNDERLINED PORTION OF THE SENTENCE. It sounds like garden was in the vase on his bedroom. Which makes it a completely awkward sentence.

E. while they arranged a bouquet of roses that had just been picked from his garden.

I am sorry to distube
when I cam,he had finished the lunch and was learning gmat.
this is correct.
so , "had been" in choice B is correct
choice B is wrong because bouquet can not be picked, but roses can

This question is based on Pronouns, Tenses, and Construction.

In Option A, the pronoun ‘they’ does not have a logical antecedent. So, Option A can be eliminated.

There is an inconsistency between the adverb ‘as’ and the past perfect tense ‘had been picked’. The adverb implies that the action was going on simultaneously with some other action. So, Option B can be eliminated.

This option conveys the appropriate time frame with the use of the adverb ‘as’ and the past continuous tense. So, C is the best of all the options.

The underlined portion is followed by the prepositional phrase “in a vase”, conveying the meaning that it was a garden in a vase on his bedroom windowsill. Since this meaning is illogical, Option D can be eliminated.

Option E repeats the errors in Options A and D. The pronoun ‘they’ is without an antecedent. The placement of the prepositional phrase after the noun ‘garden’ changes the meaning. So, Option E can also be eliminated.

Therefore, C is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

Ans:C
A. as they arranged a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden

B. as a bouquet of roses had been just picked from his garden and was being arranged

C. as a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden was being arranged

D. during the arrangement of a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden

E. while they arranged a bouquet of roses that had just been picked from his garden

In option b - ... and was being arranged (Passive).
as "and" is used with "passive voice" we need passive voice before "and" which is missing
so B is wrong . Am i correct thinking the same?