The emergence of political parties, usually referred to as "fractions"

Only B) and E) use "was", which correctly is singular because is refers to "emergence". The idiom is "to be anticipated by" to my knowledge, thus B) is correct.

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The emergence of political parties, usually referred to as "fractions", were anticipated and generally disapproved of by the first generation of American statesmen.

A. were anticipated and generally disapproved of
B. was anticipated and, in generall not approved
C. were anticipated, though with disapproval
D. had been anticipated and generally disapproved
E. was anticipated and generally disapproved of

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1. As it was mentioned above, we have "emergence", it is singular. So we need "was". A, C out.
2. There is no need in past perfect here, we do not have 2 actions that happened in past. So D is out. Moreover, yes, "approve/disapprove of" is a correct idiom, so we can eliminate C, D and B.
3. Look at B. "in general" it is not the same as "generally".
First means: emergence was approved a little bit. Disapproved in general, but.
Second means:emergence was not approved at all. Generally.
So one more time B is out.

4. So it is E. Was - singular. Correct meaning of the sentence. And right idiom "disapproved of".

abhimahna

Didn't quite understand why D is incorrect. Why cant we use past perfect tense here? It signifies a sequence of events in the past( first "anticipated" and second "disapproved"). Also not sure why B is wrong and E is correct

Hi abhimahna ,GMATNinja , daagh
I got a doubt,
If option D were
"had been anticipated and was generally disapproved" would it be more appropriate ?
As this further defines the sequence of events ?
Otherwise these two events don't have sequence - We can't be clear when the emergence was anticipated by people : Before it was disapproved by govt. or after it was disapproved by govt.
Furthermore these two look like some contradicting ideas. So, Why are we using AND (which is used to join similar ideas), Rather than using "BUT / However etc"(which is used to show contradicting ideas)

mikemcgarry,

Could you advise why E is better than B.

Thanks,
Amm

I might not be as good as mike,
But i never opt an answer that has a comma after "and" and closes the later clause with a pull stop.

Hope it helps.

I am afraid the meaning has been missed here. The early Statesmen such as Washington and Jefferson foresaw that, if too many small parties with local interests were encouraged, that would spoil the common good of the country as a whole.
Therefore, they at that very time disapproved the multiparty politics and advocated only two or maximum three party system. Both the anticipation and disapproval were concurrent, and therefore there is no sequence required between them.
That is the reason that the simultaneous ' had been anticipated and (had been) generally disapproved is the correct diction rather than the sequential 'had been anticipated' and the 'was disapproved.'
Also, there is no contrast between anticipation and disapproval. Both are two separate phenomena.

Hi,

I am still not sure what's wrong with B though

prateek
In B, per se, 'was anticipated' is enclosed between two commas, rendering it inessential. (same comment for C also )

daagh sir,
I agree to you...but I have seen numerous experienced person saying that GMAT doesn't test the concept of punctuation.

Regards,
Tamal

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I dont understand why B is not the correct answer, as per my understanding 'not approved by' is correct.

Thanks

GMATNinja,

Is "disapproved of by X" correct ? Could you share few examples in which "disapproved of by blah blah" has been used.

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