Equipped with hundreds of rifles and pikes and leading a band of

Question

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
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Equipped with hundreds of rifles and pikes and leading a band of twenty-one men, John Brown, the most famous revolutionary of the U.S. abolitionist movement, instigated a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in  1859, was captured on the third day of the attack and ultimately had been defeated, being unable  to gain the support of the local slave population.

A) 1859, was captured on the third day of the attack and ultimately had been defeated, being unable

B) 1859, was captured on the third day of the attack, while ultimately being defeated because he had failed

C) 1859, was captured on the third day of the attack, and was ultimately defeated because he had failed

D) 1859, captured on the third day of the attack, and was ultimately defeated because he failed

E) 1859, having been captured on the third day of the attack and ultimately defeated, being unable

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2)

• Strip the sentence, this way:
John Brown ... instigated a raid ... in  1859, was captured on the third day of the attack and ultimately had been defeated, being unable  to gain the support of the local slave population.

One subject, John Brown, is connected to three verbs.
One verb,  instigated,  in simple past tense, is in the underlined portion.

The verbs in the choices should be parallel to that first verb unless reason exists for the verb tense to change.

• In INcorrect Option A,
. . .  instigated  and  was captured  are in past tense, but  had been defeated  is needlessly and incorrectly in past perfect tense. 
Eliminate A.

• In INcorrect option B , the verbal  being  is not parallel with  instigated  and  was captured. 
Eliminate Choice B.

Now compare the remaining answers.

• In INcorrect option D,
the answer lacks the the helping verb     that should accompany  captured , changing the verb from passive to active. 
This change alters the meaning of the sentence. John Brown was captured; he did not  do  the capturing. 
(You do not need outside knowledge. Every option tells you that he had been defeated.)
Eliminate Choice D.

• INcorrect Choice E changes two of the main verbs to a modifying phrase and thereby also changes the meaning of the sentence. 
Choice E makes it sound as though John Brown instigated the raid  after  he was captured and defeated, a nonsensical state of affairs. 
Eliminate E.

The answer is C.
In Choice C all three verbs are parallel and the sentence makes sense.

If you were unsure of the grammar rule being tested, you could also look for changes in the answer choices. 
The fact that the verb forms are changing is a clue that there may be a parallel construction error.

In short, as we saw above, the errors described below are fatal.

Choice A: The verbs in the list  instigated...was captured ...and ultimately  had been defeated  are not parallel. Parallel Construction.

Choice B:  Being  is not parallel with  instigated  and  was captured . Parallel Construction.

Choice C: Correct.

Choice D: Changing  captured  from passive  was  captured] to active voice (   captured ) alters the meaning of the sentence. Whom did he capture? That verb change makes no sense. Illogical Meaning.

Choice E: The phrase  having been captured  on the third day of the attack and  ultimately defeated  is not parallel with the non-underlined verb  instigated.  Parallel Construction.

The correct answer is C.

NOTES

Unlike nouns, adjectives, phrases, adverbs, and other parts of speech, verbs in a list and/or conjoined by the word  and  do not always need to be parallel.
In fact, in many cases, verbs can change tenses.

In this case, the verbs must be parallel in each option because they share a subject (John Brown), describe events that happened at the same (simple past tense) time, and are conjoined by  and .

COMMENTS

munindra95  , welcome to SC Butler.
I am always glad to see new aspirants join our "veterans" of SC Butler.

These answers are good.
Aspirants should read the thread.
These posters each address issues that I do not. 
 Each  became plural. Why? When it is used  after  a plural subject, each becomes plural. There’s your tidbit for the day.]

Great work.

munindra95 · Answer

-Equipped with hundreds of rifles and pikes and leading a band of twenty-one men, 
-John Brown, 
 -the most famous revolutionary of the U.S. abolitionist movement, 
 - instigated  a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859, 
 - was captured  on the third day of the attack and 
 -ultimately  had been defeated,  
 -being unable to gain the support of the local slave population.

here we have three actions ie three verbs- instigated, was captured and had been defeated. 
whenever you have "had" look for sequencing. Sequence is wrong. First he isntigated, was captured and then he was defeated so - 1st error. Had is used for later event which is wrong. 
So, A - incorrect.

B- 1st error- second verb should have "and" 
 while.....seems right but not too sure about. but already we have one error 
B- incorrect

C- is correct. "and" is there for the last verb and "had" is used for previous of the two instances in past which are related too(* events must be related if not then we can't use had, even if sequencing is there ).

D. captured becomes a modifier here. list is now verb, modifier and verb. which is wrong. if we wanted to modify John Brown we should have done it before the usage of first verb. 
D- incorrect.

E- three verbs are not parallel at all. 
E-incorrect.

C- is correct.

zhanbo · Answer

My answer is  (C) . It took me 01:21.

(A) The use of past perfect tense in "ultimately had been defeated" is wrong because the action "defeat" occurred after actions "instigation" and "capture".

(B) One issue is that "and" should be added before "was captured" (and the comma before "was" captured" should be dropped) since the main verbs are no longer a list of three items.

(D) "was" should be added before "captured on the third day of the attack". Without "was", past participle phrase might be interpreted to modify year 1859.

(E) One issue is that "having been captured on the third day of the attack" suggests that the capture occurred before action "instigation".

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

Equipped with hundreds of rifles and pikes and leading a band of twenty-one men, John Brown, the most famous revolutionary of the U.S. abolitionist movement, instigated a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859, was captured on the third day of the attack and ultimately had been defeated, being unable to gain the support of the local slave population.

A) 1859, was captured on the third day of the attack and ultimately had been defeated, being unable -> How can be John defeated before attack. "had been defeated" means he was defeated first and then attacked. Incorrect.

B) 1859, was captured on the third day of the attack, while ultimately being defeated because he had failed -> we have list items, but we don't have "and". It would be better, if it was mentioned, "and was captured...". Incorrect.

C) 1859, was captured on the third day of the attack, and was ultimately defeated because he had failed -> "was captured" and "was ultimately defeated" are parallel to each other. We can see the reason of his failure was "he didn't get the support from local slave population". It makes sense too. Let's keep it.

D) 1859, captured on the third day of the attack, and was ultimately defeated because he failed -> We can't say, "he failed to get support" happened at the same time, when we was captured and defeated. Incorrect.

E) 1859, having been captured on the third day of the attack and ultimately defeated, being unable -> "having been captured" is not parallel to "defeated". Incorrect.

So, I think C.

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here .

Equipped with hundreds of rifles and pikes and leading a band of

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Equipped with hundreds of rifles and pikes and leading a band of

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