The artist Renoir’s last word was “flowers,” spoken as they arrange a

Question

The artist Renoir’s last word was “flowers,” spoken  as they arranged a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden  in a vase on his bedroom windowsill.

A. as they arranged a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden

B. as a bouquet of roses had been just picked from his garden and was being arranged

C. as a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden was being arranged

D. during the arrangement of a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden

E. while they arranged a bouquet of roses that had just been picked from his garden

SaraiYaseenGMAT · Accepted Answer

You can't rely on shortcuts (like, "being is usually wrong"); but there are very quick ways to eliminate the wrong answers here!

A. as they arranged a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden

"They" has no referent (i.e., no word to which "they" refers appears in the sentence).

B. as a bouquet of roses had been just picked from his garden and was being
arranged

Indeed, the past perfect ("had been" -- the past perfect of the verb 'be') should be used ONLY to indicate the deep past, that is, the history, relative to a specified point in time already in the past.

Thus, you would NOT need the past perfect in a sentence like this:

Ex. I drank coffee before I ate breakfast. (This all one time frame.)

But you WOULD need the past perfect in this sentence:

Ex. I had drunk so much coffee that by 4 a.m. I was still wide awake.

In this sentence the picking and arranging happen in the same time frame, so the tense should be the same if both verbs are used.

C. as a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden was being arranged

TIP: "BEING" IS CORRECT WHEN DESCRIBING A PROCESS. SO IF YOU CAN INSERT "IN THE PROCESS OF" BEFORE THE "BEING" AND WIND UP WITH A SENSIBLE SENTENCE, THE "BEING" IS CORRECT!

Ex.
 Correct:  The skyscraper (in the process of) being built downtown is ugly.

Incorrect:  Sue, being a student at NTU, is a hard worker. (She is not in the process of being a student; she is just a student.)
 
D. during the arrangement of a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden

TIP: ALWAYS READ PAST THE UNDERLINED PORTION!  Doing so will save you more time than you would think. At least 30% of the SC questions contain an important tip in the portion of the sentence following the underlined portion. It will only take you a maximum of 10 sec to read, and on 3 out of 10 problems, doing so will save you an extra minute or two.

Notice that right after the underlined portion is a prepositional phrase ("in a vase"). "In a vase" modified (i.e. describes) "arranged", not "garden", so the last word in the answer you chose should be "arranged".

E. while they arranged a bouquet of roses that had just been picked from his garden

Same problems as A and D.

More on 'being' and modifiers in SC Lesson 4 at gmaxonline!

Best,
Sarai

daagh · Answer

A garden can not stay in a vase on a bedroom windowsill. So choices A, D and E that end with a garden are out. Between B and C, the diction is wrong in B as it says that a bouquet of roses had just been picked. One can pick roses and not a bouquet. C is the winner despite the use of was being arranged

UMB · Answer

between C and D. I vote for D for being active.
" they" doesn't have antecedent.A and E out.
In B "had been" and "and" are unnecessary.

JohnLewis1980 · Answer

Hi guys,

IMO  D

A. as they arranged a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden  what's the referece of they? 
B. as a bouquet of roses had been just picked from his garden and was being
arranged  being 
C. as a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden was being arranged  being 
D. during the arrangement of a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden  Hold 
E. while they arranged a bouquet of roses that had just been picked from his garden  what's the referece of they?

OA and Source?

Thanks

atletikos · Answer

IMO C - 'being arranged' properly characterizes the moment when 'flower' was pronounced

D seems to be redundant: 'during the arrangement...' 
A,E - they has no reference
B - incorrect time usage - 'had been'

icandy · Answer

Generally, being is evil on the GMAT, unless we need to show the state one is in. This is one such situation and I will go with C.

A & E out for lack of reference to they.

B is out because of the past perfect.

D is out as during which does not make sense. During which means the entire time period. The words might be spoken any time. we need to show that both events happened at the same time.

My pick C

snaps · Answer

wow were do you guys find those questions anyways?

going with a fun C here is why:

iamcste · Answer

"They" doesnt have any antecedent to map to. Eliminate A and E

B-Past perfect is not required as the different actions and their order of occurences is clear
( what I meant is you cant made bouquet before picking roses and you cant arrange them before you have roses.)

Event 1-Roses picked
Event 2-Bouquet made
Event 3- R* says

Now Eve

D-During the arrangement is clumsy

Choose C

RGM · Answer

My pick is C. A and E are out because "they" is ambiguous. B is wordy compared to other choices and as for D, "during the arrangement" uses an action noun, and verb usage is preferable to action noun usage.

Senthil7 · Answer

A,E - "they" has not antecedent hence incorrect sentence construction.
B - Incorrect tense "had been" 
D - Meaning issue - "Last words spoken was 'Flowers' during".
.
 Only correct choice is C.

anairamitch1804 · Answer

(C) is the only possible answer to the question.

(A) and (E) both contain the unsupported pronoun "they". Every pronoun on the GMAT will have an antecedent (the only exception to this rule is "it", which can appear in reference to the universe as a whole, e.g. "it is a nice day today").

We can also eliminate (B) for verb tense problems. "as" indicates that things are going on simultaneously, so switching to "had just been" is wrong.

(D) has modification issues. We need to remember that the part of the sentence after the underlined portion also has to make sense. Looking at the fragment:

"during the arrangement of a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden in a vase on his bedroom windowsill"

we see that (D) makes is sound as though the garden is in a vase on his bedroom windowsill, which makes no sense.

Only (C) gets everything in the sentence where it should be, uses the correct tenses and doesn't introduce any ambiguous pronouns.

As an aside, it's certainly correct that "being" is rarely correct on the GMAT. A good general rule of thumb is "other things being equal, don't pick choices with "being" in them". However, avoiding "being" is a style choice, so if the only gramatically correct choice uses the word, that choice will be correct.

zvazviri · Answer

A and E out; THEY has no antecedent and is ambiguous. At best, THEY refers to flowers, and such a reference is illogical.
B is out for wrong tense. HAD BEEN is past perfect tense, which is used when referring to a event in the past that precedes another event in the past.
D is out for modifier positions. ON HIS BEDROOM WINDOWSILL needs to touch ARRANGEMENT for clear meaning. 
C is the correct answer, by POE.

VKat · Answer

Hello expert,

If in question, it is being mentioned 'they' without any reference, so will it be incorrect statement?

zvazviri · Answer

I'm not an expert, but I will take a shot at this:

With respect to pronouns, the GMAT likes to test whether the pronoun is being used correctly; what is the antecedent of the pronoun? The pronoun must make sense and agree in number with the pronoun.

Every time you see  it, its, they, them or their  check to see whether the pronoun is being used correctly.

Note that  it  is sometimes used correctly without an antecedent e.g.

It is a bad idea to stay up late the night before an exam.

HimanshuW11 · Answer

The artist Renoir’s last word was “flowers,” spoken   as they arranged a bouquet of roses just picked from his
garden   in a vase on his bedroom window sill.

Plural pronoun “they” doesn’t have an antecedent here, as here author is just talking about the artist, and no mention has been made about any other actor. Hence A and E go out.

A. as they arranged a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden.

B. as a bouquet of roses had been just picked from his garden and was being arranged. 
Past perfect tense “had been” isn’t required here for 2 reasons:
The events are clear explicitly, once the flowers are picked then they may be arranged.
“As” indicate that the actions are happening in the same time frame, then using the past perfect creates ambiguity.

C. as a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden was being arranged.   CORRECT 
Don’t use the shortcut of eliminating the choices with BEING, Being is not always incorrect.
Being is mostly correct while describing a process. So to verify just insert “in the process of” before “BEING” if the sentence still remains sensible then being is correctly used there.
For e.g. as a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden was (in the process of) being arranged.

D. during the arrangement of a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden. 
READ THE NON-UNDERLINED PORTION OF THE SENTENCE. It sounds like garden was in the vase on his bedroom. Which makes it a completely awkward sentence.

E. while they arranged a bouquet of roses that had just been picked from his garden.

thangvietnam · Answer

I am sorry to distube
when I cam,he had finished the lunch and was learning gmat. 
this is correct.
so , "had been" in choice B is correct
choice B is wrong because bouquet can not be picked, but roses can

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

This question is based on Pronouns, Tenses, and Construction.

In Option A, the pronoun ‘they’ does not have a logical antecedent. So, Option A can be eliminated.

There is an inconsistency between the adverb ‘as’ and the past perfect tense ‘had been picked’. The adverb implies that the action was going on simultaneously with some other action. So, Option B can be eliminated.

This option conveys the appropriate time frame with the use of the adverb ‘as’ and the past continuous tense. So, C is the best of all the options.

The underlined portion is followed by the prepositional phrase “in a vase”, conveying the meaning that it was a garden in a vase on his bedroom windowsill. Since this meaning is illogical, Option D can be eliminated.

Option E repeats the errors in Options A and D. The pronoun ‘they’ is without an antecedent. The placement of the prepositional phrase after the noun ‘garden’ changes the meaning. So, Option E can also be eliminated.

Therefore, C is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

debjit1990 · Answer

Ans:C
A. as they arranged a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden

B. as a bouquet of roses had been just picked from his garden and was being arranged

C. as a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden was being arranged

D. during the arrangement of a bouquet of roses just picked from his garden

E. while they arranged a bouquet of roses that had just been picked from his garden

priyaf4 · Answer

In option b - ... and was being arranged (Passive).
as "and" is used with "passive voice" we need passive voice before "and" which is missing
so B is wrong . Am i correct thinking the same?

The artist Renoir’s last word was “flowers,” spoken as they arrange a

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The artist Renoir’s last word was “flowers,” spoken as they arrange a

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