While Jane watched a horror movie, someone suddenly knocked on the doo

Question

While Jane  watched a horror movie, someone suddenly  knocked on the door.

A. watched a horror movie, someone suddenly

B. watched a horror movie, somebody suddenly

C. was watching a horror movie, someone suddenly

D. watched a horror movie, someone all of a sudden

E. was watching a horror movie, all of a sudden someone

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

While Jane  watched a horror movie, someone suddenly  knocked on the door.

A. watched a horror movie, someone suddenly

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect. It uses Past Simple, which is a tense used to denote an action that occurred at a specific point in the past. However, this does not agree with the time expression  while , which is indicative of an action that was in progress in the past and of Past Progressive.

B. watched a horror movie, somebody suddenly

This answer choice repeats the original mistake. It uses Past Simple, which is a tense used to denote an action that occurred at a specific point in the past. However, this does not agree with the time expression while, which is indicative of an action that was in progress in the past and of Past Progressive.

In addition, this answer choice is stylistically flawed. Replacing the single word suddenly with the four-word phrase all of a sudden creates redundancy.

C. was watching a horror movie, someone suddenly

While  is a time expression that's indicative of Past Progressive.

D. watched a horror movie, someone all of a sudden

This answer choice repeats the original mistake. It uses Past Simple, which is a tense used to denote an action that occurred at a specific point in the past. However, this does not agree with the time expression while, which is indicative of an action that was in progress in the past and of Past Progressive.

In addition, this answer choice is stylistically flawed. Replacing the single word suddenly with the four-word phrase all of a sudden creates redundancy.

In addition, this answer choice is stylistically flawed. Replacing the single word  suddenly  with the four-word phrase  all of a sudden  creates redundancy.

E. was watching a horror movie, all of a sudden someone

Although it correct the original mistake, this answer choice is stylistically flawed. Replacing the single word  suddenly  with the four-word phrase  all of a sudden  creates redundancy.

sumitkrocks · Answer

The intent of the sentence is to present an action when some other action was happening, so correct tense is past continuous.
adverb suddenly correctly modifies verb knocked in C

(C) is correct

zhanbo · Answer

My answer is (C) . It took me 34 seconds. (AB) can be eliminated because they are equivalent ("someone" = "somebody"). They cannot be both correct, so they must be both wrong. (DE) can be eliminated because "all of a sudden" is not as concise as "suddenly", especially so in this short sentence. "Past continuous tense can be used to describe something that was happening continuously in the past when another action interrupted it. Example: I was making dinner when she arrived. " (Read more at https://www.grammarly.com/blog/past-continuous-tense/)

asishron29181 · Answer

While Jane  watched a horror movie, someone suddenly  knocked on the door.

A.  watched  a horror movie, someone suddenly - Incorrect. Incorrect tense usage.

B.  watched  a horror movie, somebody suddenly - Incorrect. Incorrect tense usage.

C. was watching a horror movie, someone suddenly  - Correct. Correct usage of tense and provides the intended meaning of the sentence.

D.  watched  a horror movie, someone all of a sudden - Incorrect. Incorrect tense usage.

E. was watching a horror movie,  all of a sudden  someone - Incorrect. 'all of a sudden' makes the sentence wordy.
 
IMO C

piyushluniya · Answer

both "all of a sudden" and "suddenly" imply same thing, its just a matter of where it should be placed i.e near the subject or the verb.
I feel it will be C, which means near the verb.

aarkay87 · Answer

My POE:

The presence of subordinating conjunction - WHILE - confirms that two actions are happening simultaneously. So we can eliminate choice-A, B, and D as past progressive tense is not used.

Options C and E are both grammatically correct. Even though 'all of a sudden' and 'suddenly' are both adverbial modifiers, I will pick suddenly because of conciseness (1 word against 4 words) AND its placement near the verb.

Please confirm OA!

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

While Jane watched a horror movie, someone suddenly knocked on the door.

A. watched a horror movie, someone suddenly - Incorrect. Incorrect tense usage.

B. watched a horror movie, somebody suddenly - Incorrect. Incorrect tense usage.

C. was watching a horror movie, someone suddenly - Correct. Correct usage of tense and provides the intended meaning of the sentence.

D. watched a horror movie, someone all of a sudden - Incorrect. Incorrect tense usage.

E. was watching a horror movie, all of a sudden someone - Incorrect. 'all of a sudden' makes the sentence wordy.

IMO C

RB456 · Answer

While Jane was doing an action , another action happened.
Answer should be C

Sumi1010 · Answer

While Jane watched a horror movie, someone suddenly knocked on the door.

We use "while" to demonstrate 
1. A simultaneous action 
2. A contrast

In this sentence, we don't have anything to reflect a contrast. 
When did someone knock the door? 
- When Jane  was watching  a horror movie 
Clearly, Jane had not completed the action at that moment. We should not use a simple past tense.

We can eliminate choices  A, B and D  for using simple past.

For choices C and E, let's look at: 
 All of sudden Vs Suddenly  
Suddenly is an adverb and modifies the verb i.e. "How" the action was performed. 
All of a sudden answers "when" the action was performed.
 When was the door knocked? 
- now, then, all of sudden etc.

The first part of the sentence already tells us that the door was knocked when Jane was watching horror movie. 
The sentence seems to inform about "how" aspect of the action i.e. the door was knocked suddenly.

IMO  C

While Jane watched a horror movie, someone suddenly knocked on the doo

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

While Jane watched a horror movie, someone suddenly knocked on the doo

Prep Toolkit

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

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My Rewards