The candidate spent a significant time in the South, preaching

Question

The candidate spent a significant time in the South,  preaching a strong message of family values, lest he lose  the vote in those states.

A. preaching a strong message of family values, lest he lose

B. preached a strong message about family values, lest he loses

C. preaching a strong message for family values, instead of losing

D. preached a strong message of family values, unless he loses

E. preaching a strong message about family values, and he won't lose

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parasma · Answer

Lest is subjunctive mood.
Modifier tells about how did he spend significant time. So preaching is correct.

Answer is A.

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DrAnkita91 · Answer

Can please some one explain why B cannot be the answer.. ( it should be he loses right?)

parasma · Answer

With subjunctive mood, we use base form of the verb.

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Bunuel · Answer

Magoosh Official Explanation:

Split #1:  preaching/preached. The main subject is "candidate", and everything before the comma, before the underlined part, forms an independent clause. If we followed an independent clause with another verb, we would need a conjunction either right there making the two verbs parallel (e.g.    "and"  ) or later in the sentence making three verbs parallel (e.g.   ,  , and  ). In none of the choices does what follows the second comma provide evidence for the parallelism of three verbs. Therefore, instead of a verb, we need a participle. The verb "preached" is incorrect, and the participle "preaching" (modifying the subject) is correct. (A) & (C) & (E) have this correct.

Split #2:  the clause following the second comma. In the sentence, the subject is performing an action with the specific purpose of preventing an unwanted result. Options (C) and (E) both lose that sense of purpose given by the word "lest." Grammatically, a clause beginning with "lest" must be in the subjunctive mood. The construction "lest he loses" is grammatically incorrect, because the verb is in the indicative mood (i.e. ordinary factual statement, the form we use over 95% of the time). Here, we need the subjunctive, "lest he lose"—only answer choice (A) has this correct construction, so (A) is the only possible answer.

FAQ:  Is there a difference in usage for "message of" versus "message about" family values?

A "message of family values" means that the message is intended to promote family values, whereas "a message about family values" means that the message is concerning or related to family values, but may not necessarily be in promotion of family values.

The candidate spent a significant time in the South, preaching

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

The candidate spent a significant time in the South, preaching

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