One reason that the student was ahead of her classmates was

Question

One reason that the student was ahead of her classmates
was  because of having taken summer school  through the local college.
(A) because of having taken summer school
(B) her having taken summer school
(C) that she had taken summer school
(D) because she took summer school
(E) she had taken summer school

Explanations please...

shrouded1 · Answer

I think answer is C

The use of "because" seems incorrect with "One reason that ..." ruling out A and C
B --> Passive voice

Between C & E : I chose C because "One reason that X was  that  Y" ... and it sounded more natural than E w/o the "that"

piyushagarwal · Answer

I am confused between C & E. C starts with 'that', not sure if its required as the sentence starts with 'One reason  that  '

siyer · Answer

C is the correct answer.

One reason ....was  that she had taken summer school.

saxenashobhit · Answer

One reason that the student was ahead of her classmates
was  because of having taken summer school  through the local college.
(A) because of having taken summer school-- having is incorrect also one cannot have school
(B) her having taken summer school - same as A
(C) that she had taken summer school 
(D) because she took summer school -- took is incorrect has to be with past progressive
(E) she had taken summer school

now between C & E , 
I will go with C ---- >  that  the student  was  _____ was   that she had taken

suyashjhawar · Answer

Like everybody,i went for C.However OA is E.I thought had...had structure maintains parallelism too.But OA says Wordiness and Verb Tense as reference.
Source-Powerscore.Any other reason why E preferred over C?

adishail · Answer

E is better. Parallelism is not an issue here. Looking at both -

C) One reason that the student was ahead of her classmates was that she had taken summer school through the local college
E) One reason that the student was ahead of her classmates was she had taken summer school through the local college

C) is of the form - One reason that X was that Y
E) is the form - One reason that X was Y

E is more concise.

As far as narrowing down to C & E goes - The main thing to notice here is that fact that this sentence involves two actions taking place in the past, one before the other.

student was ahead ..... and ........... having taken summer school.

which one took place first ? summer school. Therefore, summer school happened first and as a result the student was ahead.

I believe this is the case of PAST PERFECT TENSE. The earlier action uses past perfect tense (had + past participle) and the latter action uses simple past tense. As a result, the earlier action in this case,   had taken  summer school  is the HAD + past particle TAKEN.

However, I am slightly confused because "the student was ahead of her classmates" is not in simple past tense.

vibhutirs · Answer

E sounds better, because its more concise.

redjam · Answer

I fell for C as well. I'm taking a guess at this...

MGMAT says that the word "that" or "whom" can be omitted when the modified noun is the object of the sentence.

So in this case, the "student" is the subject. "One reason" is the object - "that she had taken summer school" modifies the object, hence "that" can be dropped in this sentence. Am I making any sense?

adishail · Answer

Looking it in a simpler way - the first "that" is the relative pronoun for "one reason" ....... (the person who ...... the reason that ...... one reason that... etc). However, the second "that" is not acting as a relative pronoun. Therefore, C is more concise.

goalsnr · Answer

Suyash,
 IIlism structure exists when there there is an "and " to bind the components
" that X and that Y"

In C "that" tends to introduce a restrictive clause which is not necessary .

metallicafan · Answer

I think the second "that" doesn't introduce a restrictive clause. The idiom is "the reason...is THAT...".

Please provide more explanations. This question is very interesting.

goalsnr · Answer

If the 2nd that does not play a role in introducing the rstrictive clause what role do you think the 2nd that is playing? It is a good idea to give reasons and support your thoughts on discussion forums.

One reason that the student was ahead of her classmates was

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