In the eighteenth century William Shakespeare was regarded as one of

Question

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1) 
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In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart .

A) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.

B) William Shakespeare was considered as one of the greatest playwrights of all time in the eighteenth century, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question his works.

C) In the eighteenth century, they considered William Shakespeare as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first explicit question his authorship of Shakespeare’s works.

D) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was considered to be one of the greater playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.

E) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded to be one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.

generis · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC1)

THE PROMPT  
 
• Issues tested
→ pronouns

→ idioms 
 Correct :  consider X, Y 
 Correct but rare  (see Notes):  consider to be 
 Correct :  regard as 
 Wrong :  Consider as 
 Wrong :  Regard to be

→ adverb v. adjective

(Sidebar: If you know anything at all about Shakespeare, you may have wondered why, according to the author, Shakespeare was a highly admired playwright "in the eighteenth century" rather than, say, "Since the late Renaissance." One influential school of thought argues that for 200 years after Shakespeare's lifetime, he was known primarily as a poet who gained wide acclaim as a playwright only in the late 1700s.)

THE OPTIONS  
 
• I see no issues

•  regarded as  is acceptable, whereas  considered as  is not.

• the sentence is clear about the fact that Hart openly questioned the authorship of the works attributed "to Shakespeare."
No pesky pronouns are creating problems.
KEEP

• The correct idiom is  Consider X, Y. 
→  consider as  is incorrect, though  consider to be  is acceptable. See Notes.
→ The idiom  Consider X, Y  is constructed this way:
  considers + noun (X) + noun (Y)
X = Shakespeare
Y = one of the greatest playwrights of all time
→ Option B should say, " Shakespeare  (X) was considered  one of the greatest playwrights of all time    . . ."

• the word  his  has two theoretical antecedents (Hart and Shakespeare), but only one logical antecedent (Shakespeare).
No pronoun ambiguity exists, but option B is not as clear as option A.

→ True, Hart and Shakespeare are both theoretical antecedents for  his .
But we know that Joseph C. Hart was not questioning the authorship of books written by Joseph C. Hart. 
An author would not question whether he wrote his own books. Hart was questioning books written by Shakespeare.
A pronoun is not ambiguous if it has only one  logical  antecedent.

→ Although we cannot eliminate (B) based on pronoun ambiguity, we can compare option B to A. 
In option A, Hart questions  the authorship of the works attributed  to Shakespeare  
In option B, Hart questions  his  works. 
Option A is clearer.
ELIMINATE B

• who the heck is  they?  No antecedent exists for  they .

•  considered . . . as  is not idiomatic.

•  explicit  should be  explicitly  
→  explicit  is an adjective that might describe a clearly-written set of instructions.
→ we need  explicitly,  the adverb, in order to describe the way in which Hart raised questions about Shakespeare's work.

•  his  is pure babble. 
As written, this part makes it seem that Hart questioned  Hart's  authorship of Shakespeare's works.
Although antecedents can be placed after the pronoun, logic must be clear.
→  Correction : Hart first explicitly question   the  authorship of Shakespeare’s works.
That option is a hot mess.
ELIMINATE C
 
•  considered to be  is acceptable. See Notes.

•  greater  should be  greatest 
→ we use the comparative,  greater , when we discuss two playwrights.
→ we use the superlative,  greatest,  when we discuss more than two playwrights. "Of all time" includes more than two playwrights.

•  Shakespeare's authorship of the works attributed to him  is strained. 
Why not  the authorship of Shakespeare's works ?

• The word  him  is problematic, but not because of "possessive poison."
 POSSESSIVE POISON IS NOT AN IRONCLAD RULE. 
 I wrote a well-researched post about the fact that GMAC allows both a subject (he, she) and object (him, her) pronoun to refer to a possessive noun. 
You can read  that post here . 
→  Him  is problematic because it is illogical. Don't waste time on this issue if you understand that  greater  is fatal.
→ If you truly faced options A and D after eliminating other options, you could use this potentially ambiguous  his  to tip the balance towards option A.
ELIMINATE D
 
•  regarded to be  is not idiomatic.
→ idioms for  regard  and  consider  (they "swap" what is correct) 
Wrong: Regard X, Y
Wrong: Regard to be X
Correct: Regard as X

Correct: Consider X, Y
Okay but rare: Consider to be
Wrong: Consider as X

• Although we still understand that Hart is not questioning Shakepeare's authorship of the works attributed to  Hart  and that  his  refers to  Shakepeare's,  compared to option A, we are working too hard.
ELIMINATE E

The correct answer is A.

NOTES

CONSIDER X Y

On the GMAT,  Consider X, Y  is tested fairly often.
You will have been told that  consider to be  is not idiomatic.
That information conflicts with two recent official questions.

Consider to be  is not common, but the construction is acceptable.

One official question uses only  "consider to be"  in all of its answer choices. 
That official question is   here. 
 A couple of other official questions use   consider to be   in the non-underlined portion of the prompt. 
You can find one of those official questions by clicking   here .]

I know that  many  sources, including one top-notch SC book, contend that  consider to be  is suspect or unidiomatic.
When a non-official source conflicts with an official source, the official source wins. Every time. (That top-notch book was wrong about "possessive poison," too. See option D, above.)
The phrase  consider to be  is used in both the underlined and non-underlined portions of official sentence correction questions.

When someone writes that   "consider to be"   and "consider as" are unidiomatic on the GMAT, ignore the "consider to be" part. 
That fact may have been true at the time the person posted the comment or wrote the book. 
If the comment is from late 2017 to the present, then its author is just repeating a belief that no longer holds.
I've linked you to two recent official questions that use  consider to be .

COMMENTS

petrichor  , welcome to SC Butler.

I am glad to see everyone, including a couple of forum members whose usernames I have not seen in a long time.

Most of these answers are very good: you all are  explaining .
There are a few inaccuracies here and there, and no wonder—a couple of issues raised by this question have not been treated consistently in the literature.
So I sent you to the source (the Official Guide).

Students who follow will have an easy time thinking about different approaches to this question.
Nice work.

sumisachan · Answer

In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Har t.

Regarded as or considered is the correct idiom!

A) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.

B) William Shakespeare was  considered as  one of the greatest playwrights of all time in the eighteenth century, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly  question   his works.

C) In the eighteenth century,  they considered  William Shakespeare as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart  first explicit question his authorship of Shakespeare’s works.  Awkward

D) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was considered to be one of the  greater  playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.

E) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was  regarded to be  one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.

A is the correct answer choice.

AntrikshR · Answer

In the eighteenth century, 
William Shakespeare (N) was regarded (V) as   one of the greatest playwrights (one of the plural noun) of all time, (IC)

and (FANBOYS) not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.
--Second part is little tricky. But you can jumble it up to make sense.
-- Not until the mid- nineteenth century, The authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare was first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart (Looks ok)--Overall IC
--Also, rhetorically 'was regarded' and 'was attributed' are parallel.
--attributed to is the correct idiom
--No issues whatsoever.

Overall Structure: IC,FANBOYS IC.

A) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.
--No Errors.

B) William Shakespeare was  considered as  one of the greatest playwrights of all time in the eighteenth century, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century  did  Joseph C. Hart first openly question his works.
--Consider does not require any conjunction
e.g.: Tajmahal is considered one of the 7 wonders in the world.
and not Tajmahal is considered  as  one of the 7 wonders in the world.
Whereas Regard always need a conjunction 'as'
e.g. Tajmahal is regarded as one of the 7 wonders in the world.

C) In the eighteenth century, they  considered  William Shakespeare  as  one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century  did  Joseph C. Hart first explicit question his  authorship of Shakespeare’s works.

D) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was  considered to be  one of the greater playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart  openly question  Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to  him .
--him? Shakespear or J.C. Hart?

E) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was  regarded to be  one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century  did  Joseph C. Hart first openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to  him .
--him? Shakespear or J.C. Hart?

GyanaDash · Answer

In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.

Question Type: Sentence Construction and idiom

A) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart. 
 Correct  Best choice

B) William Shakespeare was considered as one of the greatest playwrights of all time in the eighteenth century, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question his works. 
 Wrong  Considered as should not be used. The correct usage is considered.

C) In the eighteenth century, they considered William Shakespeare as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first explicit question his authorship of Shakespeare’s works. 
 Wrong  Not sure who “they” is referring to.

D) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was considered to be one of the greater playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.
 Wrong  One of the “greatest” is the correct usage I believe. Also, “him” cannot refer to a possessive, and thus refers to Joseph C. Hart.

E) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded to be one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him. 
 Wrong  Regarded as is the correct usage. Also, “him” cannot refer to Shakespeare as Shakespeare is a possessive. Therefore, him refers to Joseph C. Hart, which is wrong.

Thank you.

petrichor · Answer

In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.

1."Considered as" , "considered to be", "considered should be", "considered as if it were" are all unidiomatic, considered X is correct.
2. Pronouns should have clear antecedents (though there are few exceptions to this rule  , still answers can have clear referent error)

A) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.
  Correct

B) William Shakespeare was considered as one of the greatest playwrights of all time in the eighteenth century, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question his works.
1."consider as " is not correct 2. "his" has confusing antecedent (Hart's or Shakespeare's works ?)

C) In the eighteenth century, they considered William Shakespeare as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first explicit question his authorship of Shakespeare’s works.
1. "They" .. who? 2. "his" has confusing antecedent (Hart's or Shakespeare's authorship ?)

Same idiom and objective pronoun 'him' problem in D and E.

D) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was considered to be one of the greater playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.

E) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded to be one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.

alwaysHP · Answer

In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.

Considered - correct 
Considered as- wrong usage 
Considered to be - incorrect 
Regarded- incorrect 
Regarded as- correct 
Regarded to be - incorrect

A) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.
 
 B) William Shakespeare was considered as one of the greatest playwrights of all time in the eighteenth century, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question his works.
 
 C) In the eighteenth century, they considered William Shakespeare as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first explicit question his authorship of Shakespeare’s works.
 
 D) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was considered to be one of the greater playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.
 
 E) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded to be one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.

nehasomani33 · Answer

A

Correct Idioms - "regarded as" and "Consider or Considered"

Incorrect Idioms - "regarded to be" or "Considered to be/ considered as"

carrotcake · Answer

In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.

#1 - needs an adverb, sounds like Hart owned the works not questioned the works

C) In the eighteenth century, they considered William Shakespeare as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first  explicit  question  his authorship  of Shakespeare’s works.

B) William Shakespeare was considered as one of the greatest playwrights of all time in the eighteenth century, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question  his  works.

#2 - needs "regarded as" - idiom

E) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was  regarded to be  one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.

#3 - "considered to be" is marked up as suspect idiom in MGMAT, and parallelism is not present in the second half of the sentence

D) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was  considered to be  one of the greater playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century  did  Joseph C. Hart openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.

#4 - "regarded as" - correct idiom and parallel second bit of the sentence

A) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.

The winner is: A

Biswadip · Answer

Thank you Generis for such a beautiful question.

Straight split of consider vs regard. 
When using as verb, consider doesn't take any preposition with it. So straight elimination of B,C,D.

In E, was regarded to be one is awful. Wrong idiomatic usage too. 
Regard as the correct idiom, So A is clear winner.

winterschool · Answer

In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.

A) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart.

B) William Shakespeare was  considered as  one of the greatest playwrights of all time in the eighteenth century, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question  his  works.  Incorrect

considered as - in GMAT it is wrong, 
Pronoun error - his refers who?
meaning change & missing - the authorship of the works

C) In the eighteenth century,  they   considered  William Shakespeare  as  one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first explicit question  his  authorship of Shakespeare’s works.  Incorrect

Pronoun error - they refers whose?
considered as - in GMAT it is wrong,
meaning change - his refers to Joseph C. Hart

D) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was  considered to be  one of the  greater  playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to  him .  Incorrect

considered to be - in GMAT it is wrong,
greatest - required
pronoun error - him refers who?

E) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was  regarded to be  one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to  him .  Incorrect

regarded to be - wrong, regarded as - correct
pronoun error - him refers who?

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here .

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart .

A) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century was the authorship of the works attributed to Shakespeare first openly questioned by Joseph C. Hart. 
THe meaning is perfect therefore let us hang on to it

B) William Shakespeare was considered as one of the greatest playwrights of all time in the eighteenth century, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question his works. 
'his' in the end is not having the right reference therefore out

C) In the eighteenth century, they considered William Shakespeare as one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first explicit question his authorship of Shakespeare’s works. 
'they' is absolutely unnecessary , doesn't have the right reference along with the addition of 'his' therefore out

D) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was considered to be one of the greater playwrights of all time, and not until the mid-nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him. 
Similar reasoning as B

E) In the eighteenth century, William Shakespeare was regarded to be one of the greatest playwrights of all time, and not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Joseph C. Hart first openly question Shakespeare’s authorship of the works attributed to him.
Similar reasoning as B

THerefore IMO A

VerbalBot · Answer

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In the eighteenth century William Shakespeare was regarded as one of

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

In the eighteenth century William Shakespeare was regarded as one of

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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