During the bus boycott by the African American community in 1955 cont

Question

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2) 
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During the bus boycott by the African American community in 1955, contemporaries  of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s insisted that he had had  the makings of a great leader.

A) of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s insisted that he had had

B) of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s were insisting that he has

C) of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s insisted that he had

D) of Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted that he has

E) of Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted that he had

generis · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Project SC Butler: Sentence Correction (SC2)

THE PROMPT  
 
• do not form what GMAC considers a double possessive
→  Correct : Anya is a friend of Sasha. (Friend OF X)
→  Correct : Anya is Sasha's friend. (X's friend)
→  Wrong : Anya is a friend of Sasha's.
To show possession, use EITHER 
(1) OF 
or 
(2) apostrophe s ('s) . . . BUT NOT BOTH

THE OPTIONS  
A)  of  Martin Luther King,  Jr.’s  insisted that he  had had  
• Using OF and 's is redundant.
→ The correct expressions are 
contemporaries of Martin Luther King, Jr.
or
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s contemporaries

•  had had  is the wrong verb tense
→  had had  implies that MLK possessed the makings of a great leader  before  the boycott and  before  his contemporaries insisted that he had these qualities, but that MLK did not have these qualities during the actual boycott. Wrong. MLK  had  (simple past) the makings of a great leader at the time of the boycott and when his contemporaries insisted that he had such qualities.
ELIMINATE A
 
• same double possessive problem as that in option A

•  has  is the wrong verb tense
How on earth could people in the past during a boycott assert that MLK has (possesses) certain qualities now, in the present? Wrong.
Both the boycott and MLK's possession of leadership qualities happened in the past.
We need simple past  had. 
ELIMINATE B
 
• same double possessive problem as that in option A

ELIMINATE C
 
•  has  is the wrong verb tense, just as is the case in option B
→ These events occurred in the past, in 1955, including MLK's having leadership qualities 
→ simple present should be simple past
 
→ the correct verb is  had —a simple past tense verb that correctly reflects the fact that these events happened in the past
The bus boycott happened (simple past) in 1955. During that boycott, MLK's contemporaries insisted (simple past) that MLK had (possessed) (simple past) leadership qualities.

• The possessive form is correct
→ the apostrophe is correctly removed from "Jr." Placing  of  before  Martin  already shows possession.

The best answer is E

NOTES

The verb HAD in this case is simple past. 
That verb is not past perfect, except in option A (had had), which is wrong.

Had simply means  possessed .
MLK, Jr., had leadership qualities = MLK, Jr., possessed leadership qualities

COMMENTS

ananya3  , welcome to SC Butler.

Election night. I'll keep this short.

Answers by aspirants that are well explained get kudos. Be safe, everyone.

chetan2u · Answer

Errors -
1) Possessive 
We do not require a possessive form, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, here as 'contemporaries OF Martin Luther King, Jr' already clears the possession issue.
Eliminate A, B and C
2) Tense form.
We are talking of someone in the past insisting on an ongoing issue then. So, we require HAD here.

E

warrior1991 · Answer

Contemporaries of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s--> possessive S is not required here.

Eliminate A,B,and C

We need had to distinguish between the earlier past event and the later past( insisted ) .

Therefore IMO E.

dinesh2392 · Answer

Jr.'s is wrong = A,B,C out

A)  of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s insisted that he had had

B)  of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s were insisting that he has

C)  of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s insisted that he had

D) of Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted that he has

E) of Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted that he had

Confused between D & E.

He insisted  that he had  is right I feel.

IMO E is Correct

carouselambra · Answer

IMO E

During the bus boycott by the African American community in 1955, contemporaries of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s insisted that he had had the makings of a great leader.

During the bus boycott by the African American community in 1955, contemporaries of Martin Luther King,  Jr.’s  insisted that he had had the makings of a great leader.

A) of Martin Luther King,  Jr.’s  insisted that he had had

B) of Martin Luther King,  Jr.’s  were insisting that he  has

C) of Martin Luther King,  Jr.’s  insisted that he had

D) of Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted that he  has

E) of Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted that he had
 Correct  because of the reasons below :
1. contemporaries of Martin Luther King, Jr. 
2. Usage of had (since the sentence is talking about something in the past, the use of 'had' is correct)

Archit3110 · Answer

option A,B,C can be eliminated as here possesive noun usage is being done Jr's which is not required
left with D & E
we need to use had 'past perfect' here over has
option E is correct

ananya3 · Answer

IMO E

Error with the original sentence:
X of Y's is redundant.

A) of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s insisted that he had had -  Incorrect 
X of Y's is redundant

B) of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s were insisting that he has -  Incorrect 
X of Y's is redundant

C) of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s insisted that he had -  Incorrect 
X of Y's is redundant

D) of Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted that he has -  Incorrect 
The sentence is in past so we need had instead of has in this sentence

E) of Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted that he had -   Correct  
X of Y is correct and also this sentence uses had which is in the same tense as the rest of the sentence.

jhavyom · Answer

During the bus boycott by the African American community in 1955, contemporaries of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s insisted that he had had the makings of a great leader.

contemporaries  of  Martin Luther King, Jr. ’s

Use of both 'of' and 'apostrophe' is incorrect. Eliminate A, B, and C.
 
D) of Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted that he has

E) of Martin Luther King, Jr. insisted that he had

The timeline is in the past, so use of 'has' is incorrcect.

Choice E is the answer.

generis · Answer

The official explanation is  here.

During the bus boycott by the African American community in 1955 cont

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

During the bus boycott by the African American community in 1955 cont

Prep Toolkit

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

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards