V11-21

Question

Although the Ottoman Turks  under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring  that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

A. under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring
B. led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, they were unsuccessful to siege Vienna in 1529, and it marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring
C. under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring
D. who were led by Suleiman II, had taken control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, they have been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring
E. led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, they unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured

souvik101990 · Answer

Official Solution:

Although the Ottoman Turks  under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring  that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

A. under the leadership of Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring
B. led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, they were unsuccessful to siege Vienna in 1529, and it marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring
C. under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring
D. who were led by Suleiman II, had taken control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, they have been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring
E. led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, they unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured

A. If an incident happened before another incident in past, it is preferable to use past perfect for the former and simple past for the later. The incidents took control and marked the beginning are both expressed in simple past incorrectly. The modifier which stopped…. wrongly refers to empire. stopped and ensuring are not parallel.
 
B. The incidents took control and were unsuccessful are both expressed in simple past incorrectly. The pronoun it is ambiguous.
 
C.  Correct.  The verb had taken is correctly expressed in past perfect since it happened before another incident (marked) in past. The modifier starting with present participle stopping the advance…..correctly modifies the entire clause – their unsuccessful siege …..the long decline of their empire – preceding it.
 
D. Using present perfect – “…have been unsuccessful” – is incorrect because the event completed in past.
 
E. The expression “unsuccessfully sieged” is awkward. The sentence wrongly implies that the Turks marked the beginning of the long decline, stopped the advance of Islam and ensured that Christian religion and culture would dominate.

Answer: C

oldest · Answer

isn't it a bit awkward to place a coma before the word "and" because ... stopping... and ensuring... --> only 2 things to compare?

sayantanc2k · Answer

Generally a comma is not to be used for 2 items, but here the usage is justified because there is another nested "and" just before, and for clarity the author has used the comma.

vikash3141 · Answer

HI

Plz advise if the use of modifiers in the option D is correct?

Although the Ottoman Turks who were led by Suleiman II, had taken control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, they have been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, MARKING the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region.

NAvinash · Answer

Team,

@sayantanc2k; @Bunuel; @chetan2u;

I am in for option C and agree with it. However I have question around sentence structure when "although" is used here. Sentence starts with # Although subject verb ....., their unsuccessful ....# Here what I want to say it is appropriate to say # Although subject verb ...., they   verb # and so I was looking at option B which I know not correct in verb forms but for correct Although structure option B is well suited.

Do you agree ? I am convinced with contrast not being set properly.

N Avinash.

Muthusivakathir · Answer

Option D has another flaw. The sentence- "Although the Ottoman Turks 'who were led by Suleiman II' " ambiguosly means that only the Ottoman Turks who were working for Suleiman II made the following deeds and not the other Ottoman Turks who were not under him.

So it is always suggested to point out all possible mistakes that an option has, for explanations. It ll give the students a vivid understanding.

I hope it helps.

StevenA · Answer

A. under the leadership of Suleiman II  took  control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529  marked  the beginning of the long decline of their empire,   which   stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and   ensuring

- There are 4 verbs here (took, marked, stopped, ensuring) and some happened earlier than the others. Hence, a combination of Past Perfect and Simple Past would be required for this sentence.
Since 'took control of Rhodes' must happen earlier, it should be 'had taken'
- 'stopped' and 'ensuring' should be parallel and should be in the same tense

B. led by Suleiman II took control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, they were unsuccessful to siege Vienna in 1529, and it marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensuring
'to siege' is weird, and 'it' has no logical antecedent (siege?)

C. under the leadership of Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, their unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529 marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring
Correct

D. who were led by Suleiman II, had taken control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, they have been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529, marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring
'have been' only can be used if the action still continues to the present. Past perfect should be used instead

E. led by Suleiman II had taken control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, they unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529, marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and ensured

Vinodhini1803 · Answer

Hi Experts,

Between 'led by' and 'under', which one is the right usage?

Pankaj0901 · Answer

I have a doubt:

If it is obvious that an 'action A' happened before 'action B', then "past perfect" is not required for "action A". Refer example: https://gmatclub.com/forum/v04-184871.html

Following the same logic in this question, how is "past perfect" (option C) correct here? Shouldn't it be "simple perfect" (option B)?

zhanbo - Request you to please help me understand this.

zhanbo · Answer

Pankaj0901 , this is how I approached the question.

One of the challenges of this sentence is to understand the relationship between "unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529" and "the advance of Islam into central and western Europe" / the domination of "the Muslim religion and culture" in the same area.

For test takers with absolutely no historical context, they may not know if "the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman II" believe in Islam or Christian. Similarly, they may be at loss about the geographical relationship between Mediterranean and Europe.

But test takers must do the utmost to inspect each option, eliminating incorrect answers along the way.

(A) ", which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe,  and  ensuring that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region". 
There are at least two issues here.
A1: what does "which" refer to? Ideally, it refers to the noun that is immediate before, "their empire". But it does not make sense. 
It probably refers to "their unsuccessful siege". But the placement is not ideal. 
A2: If "ensuring that ..." is supposed to be parallel with "stopped the advance...", well, they are not parallel at all. 
Moreover, the comma before "and" is not needed as we use "A and B" instead of "A, and B".
It should be revised as: which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensures that ...

Now, what if "ensuring that ..." is  not  supposed to be parallel with "stopped the advance..."? Can't it can be used as a present participle phrase as modifier? The answer is: Yes, but we should remove "and": which stopped the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, ensuring that ...
So A can be eliminated.

(B) they were unsuccessful to siege Vienna in 1529, and  it  marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire,  
B1. It is quite awkward to write "they were unsuccessful to siege Vienna". 
B2. Moreover, in " it  marked the beginning of the long decline", what does  it  refer to? Because of the rewriting, we no longer have "their unsuccessful siege" to refer back to. This error is pretty fatal. 
B3. The comma in "stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe ,  and ensuring" should be removed as we use "A and B" instead of "A, and B".
So B can be eliminated.

(C) No identified issue. Looks good (and also makes the meaning of the sentence much clearer). Keep for now.

(D) Although the Ottoman Turks who were led by Suleiman II ,  had taken control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean, they have been unsuccessful in sieging Vienna in 1529,  marking  the beginning of the long decline of their empire,  stopping  the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and  ensuring  
D1. the comma in "the Ottoman Turks who were led by Suleiman II ,  had taken control of Rhodes" should be removed as " who were led by Suleiman II" is a restrictive clause. Even if we use the subordinate clause as nonrestrictive, we still need a pair of commas to set it apart. 
D2. We have a list in "marking the beginning of the long decline of their empire, stopping the advance of Islam into central and western Europe and ensuring that the Christian rather than the Muslim religion and culture would dominate the region". For a list, I prefer to use Oxford / Series comma: A, B, and C. It seems to me that GMAT also prefers Oxford comma. But, it might be a bit foolhardy to insist that there must be a comma before "and ensuring". Still, let's pay more attention to Oxford comma in official GMAT questions. 
GMAT uses Oxford comma but do not necessarily test it. 
D3. A major issue in this sentence, though, is that present participle list " marking ...,  stopping , and  ensuring " should be able to take the subject of the main clause as its logical subject. 
The subject of the sentence is They (= the Ottoman Turks). However, it is illogical to claim that the Ottoman Turks marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, and so on. The logical subject for the present participle list should be "their unsuccessful siege", which is nowhere to be found in the main clause, let alone as the subject of the main clause. 
So D can be eliminated.

(E) they unsuccessfully sieged Vienna in 1529,  marked  the beginning of the long decline of their empire,  stopped  the advance of Islam into central and western Europe, and  ensured  
It has the similar problem with D3：They (= the Ottoman Turks) cannot logically be the subject that marked the beginning of the long decline of their empire, and so on. 
(BTW, Do note the use of Oxford comma before "and ensured").
So E can be eliminated.

Answer is (C).

So far, we do not actually paid much attention to the differences between past perfect (in C, D, and E) and simple past (in A and B). Personally, I feel that past perfect is better as it made clear that taking control of Rhodes and much of the Mediterranean occurred before the unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529. For example: Tom had lived in Japan for years before migration to Europe in 1929.

Pankaj0901 · Answer

Thanks  zhanbo  for such a detailed explanation. This makes sense and I understood the approach how you have zeroed down to the correct option.

However, on your last example I got a bit confused,  Tom had lived in Japan for years before migration to Europe in 1929.

Quoting another expert ( reference link ), which says:
 "The words before and after indicate the sequence of events clearly and emphatically enough to make the use of the Past
Perfect unnecessary."

So, should the correct form of your example not be: Tom  had  lived in Japan for years before migration to Europe in 1929.
As it's obvious that Tom was living in Japan before migrating to Europe, and there is no ambiguity on the intended meaning with the usage of simple past.

zhanbo · Answer

So, for the question you referred to:
Before the subprime crisis weakened the housing market, America, with its state of the art infrastructure and with multiple job opportunities for expats, ( was / had been ) one of the most popular destinations for foreign investment.

This question exclusively tests verb tense. I think we can justify either "was" or "had been". I may likely choose the wrong answer ("had been").

For the example I use, 
Tom had lived in Japan  for years before  migration to Europe in 1929. 
Here, "for (five) years", just like "since (year | event)", strongly indicates that we need a perfect tense. 
We have lived in NYC since 1992.

I tend to remind students that we should prefer simple tenses unless there are strong indications to use perfect tense, and there is almost no need to use more complicated tense such as Past Future Perfect Continuous. For me, "for years" and "since 1929" are good indicators that test makers want us to use perfect sense.

BottomJee · Answer

I think this is a  high-quality  question and I agree with explanation.

V11-21

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