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guerrero25
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As the former dean of the school for 25 years, John Smith Updated on: 27 Mar 2013, 01:36
Originally posted by guerrero25 on 26 Mar 2013, 14:06.
Last edited by guerrero25 on 27 Mar 2013, 01:36, edited 1 time in total.
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53% (00:44) correct 47% (00:48) wrong based on 577 sessions

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As the former dean of the school for 25 years, John Smith shook the hand of more than 250,000 graduates.


A)As the former

B)The former

C)Former

D)He was

E)As the
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As the former dean of the school for 25 years, John Smith 26 Mar 2013, 20:28
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It is tempting to jump to Choice A; but then A has a subtle pitfall. There is no such job as the former Dean, for some particular number of years.
Obviously, one can be a dean for certain number of years. Then ex-dean for some number of years and then a permanently former dean lifelong; So if we have to take the time - frame along with the argument, then we have to drop the former status.
Secondly and in a way jestingly, can a former dean shake hands with 250,000 people? If he is not the incumbent dean, who will shake hands with him?
That is why E is the choice.
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As the former dean of the school for 25 years, John Smith 26 Mar 2013, 20:31
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daagh
It is tempting to jump to Choice A; but then A has a subtle pitfall. There is no such job as the former Dean, for some particular number of years.
Obviously, one can be a dean for certain number of years. Then ex-dean for some number of years and then a permanently former dean lifelong; So if we have to take the time - frame along with the argument, then we have to drop the former status.
Secondly and in a way jestingly, can a former dean shake hands with 250,000 people? If he is not the incumbent dean, who will shake hands with him?
That is why E is the choice.
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You are assuming that we should know background knowledge, and we are not supposed to ;)
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As the former dean of the school for 25 years, John Smith 26 Mar 2013, 20:52
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Ivan 91

I can see that you want to justify your choice steadfastly, but honestly, I have not assumed anything as far as I see, but only that I have explained; however if you have found some assumption in me , which I am not aware, can you kindly spell out what that assumption is ? After all, learning is eternal from whatever source it is. Isn't it? .
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As the former dean of the school for 25 years, John Smith 26 Mar 2013, 21:03
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Ivan 91

I can see that you want to justify your choice steadfastly, but honestly, I have not assumed anything as far as I see, but only that I have explained; however if you have found some assumption in me , which I am not aware, can you kindly spell out what that assumption is ? After all, learning is eternal from whatever source it is. Isn't it? .
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I think that E changes the meaning.
The original sentance makes it clear that the dean is no longer a dean. If we take option E, it looks like that he is still the dean.
r
As the dean of the iniversity for 25 years, He shaked hands with more than 250 000 graduates.
How can you infer from this that he is no longer the dean ?
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As the former dean of the school for 25 years, John Smith 26 Mar 2013, 21:11
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If he is currently continuing as a dean, we don’t call him a former dean; additionally, if he is still a continuing dean, we will not use past tense and say he shook hands, but will say, he has been shaking hands; It is as simple as that.. Especially a verb, which is an action word, carries a lot of connotations with it and I can understand that use of tense can be tricky sometimes
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As the former dean of the school for 25 years, John Smith 27 Mar 2013, 01:40
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If he is currently continuing as a dean, we don’t call him a former dean; additionally, if he is still a continuing dean, we will not use past tense and say he shook hands, but will say, he has been shaking hands; It is as simple as that.. Especially a verb, which is an action word, carries a lot of connotations with it and I can understand that use of tense can be tricky sometimes
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Thank you Ivan and Daagh for a nice explanation . OA is "E" . I went with "A" thinking that "e" changes the meaning by saying- Dean- and not a former dean .
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As the former dean of the school for 25 years, John Smith 13 Apr 2020, 07:02
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Even after reading the entire thread, i fail to understand why A is incorrect , and e is correct. e doesn't refer to the dean as former and that in my opinion alters the meaning of the original sentence.
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As the former dean of the school for 25 years, John Smith 13 Apr 2020, 09:23
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Even after reading the entire thread, i fail to understand why A is incorrect , and e is correct. e doesn't refer to the dean as former and that in my opinion alters the meaning of the original sentence.
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Hi Ishita

Consider option (A) - it saying that as former dean for 25 years, Smith shook hands of 25000 students. The meaning that is conveyed is that he shook the hands of 25000 students in his role as a former dean.

There are a couple of logical problems with this meaning:

a) A role of "former dean" does not exist - it is simply that he stopped being dean.
b) How would one being a "former dean" facilitate hand shakes with over 25000 students? It is more logical to think that the 25000 hand shakes happened when he was the dean.

Hence, while you are right that there is a meaning shift, the shift is from an illogical meaning to a more logical one. GMAT definitely allows some real world knowledge to be applied to its questions, provided it is in the nature of commonsense and not very specific assumptions (it is not wrong, for example, to assume that dropped objects will fall to the ground, or a rise in prices typically leads to a drop in demand).

Moreover, if we say, "As the dean...", we do not mean to say that he is still the dean; we only mean to say that he shook hands with 25000 students when he was the dean. The use of the past tense "shook" makes it clear that he is no longer the dean, and him being the dean is only relevant to him shaking hands with 25000 students. Therefore, the use of the past tense for the verb ensures that we also convey that he is no longer the dean - there is no need to use "former" along with "dean" to communicate that.

Hope this clarifies.
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As the former dean of the school for 25 years, John Smith 12 Nov 2023, 17:34
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