When she notices the police car's flashing lights in her rearview

Question

When she notices the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror , Suzanne pulled her car over to the side of the road.

A. When she notices the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror

B. When she notices the flashing in her rearview mirror of the police car's lights

C. Noticing the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror

D. After having noticed the flashing in her rearview mirror of the police car's lights

E. Having noticed the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror

Source:  McGraw-Hill's GMAT   (1-10)

techiesam · Accepted Answer

Its clearly between C and E. Though grammatically they both are correct , There is a very subtle meaning difference between the two of them.

C. Noticing the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror,Suzanne pulled her car over to the side of the road. 
E. Having noticed the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror ,Suzanne pulled her car over to the side of the road.

In E, use of the past participle form emphasizes that the first action has been completed before the second action begins.  Thus, we could paraphrase these two sentences as follows:

C.When Suzanne saw the lights ahead, she simultaneously stopped my car.It means seeing the light and stopping the car happens at the same time
E.Suzanne noticed that there had been flashing lights and then she stopped my car. It is much logical.

E makes better logical sense.So E is the right answer.

arun6765 · Answer

A. When she notices the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror . Incorrect
 This should not be in present tense as suzzane pulled her car is in past. 
B. When she notices the flashing in her rearview mirror of the police car's lights. Incorrect
 here it seems like she is viewing in the rearview mirror of police car. 
C. Noticing the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror. Correct
 Rightly states that when she noticed she pulled her car.  
D. After having noticed the flashing in her rearview mirror of the police car's lights. Incorrect
 same as B 
E. Having noticed the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror . Incorrect
 this action started in the past and was discontinued when suzzane pulled her car so using having is nonsensical

rishabhmishra · Answer

IMO C  i think , after the first underline sentence give us hint that we need a phase modifying suzanne so
A,B AND D eliminated 
C- correct 
E- use of having is incorrect and c is more concise than e
  
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prasanna1417 · Answer

I also had in a haste marked C as the answer......but realised my mistake after seeing the OA E....

What I understand is that the mistake in C is: "Noticing the police's car.......Suzanne pulled her car........." is like both these activities are simultaneously happening right there at the same moment...giving it a meaning something like this: "Suzanne is stepping aside while she is seeing the mirror/noticing the flash in rear-view mirror"...

Choice E).......Having noticed the police car's .........clearly removes this ambiguity....first she sees the flash and then she steps aside.....though initially may appear to be a passive and long statement, it removes ambiguity and is more clear....

May be my understanding is wrong, correct me experts.....

gauravjec · Answer

Hello Experts

Please help me differentiate between answer choices C and E.
C :- it appears that Suzanne notices the lights in her rear view mirror and at the same time pulls acar to the side
E:- Sussane notices lights in her rear view mirror and later on pulls car to the side

I am not able to understand the difference created by "noticing" and "having noticed"

"having noticed" appears to imply the occurrence of 2nd action after the completion of 1st. But logically both actions should occur simultaneously

Mpuneet · Answer

B is too awkward, ignore it. C is passive and break parallelism by changing tenses. Same problem with D and A, parallelism. E is the correct option, the verb in E is the same tense as ‘pulled’.

GiuPao94 · Answer

When she notices the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror, Suzanne pulled her car over to the side of the road.

First Suzanne noticed the light, then she pulled the car. So there is a sequence of actions. This already rules out A and B that present the first verb in the present form and the second in the past form. D has a awkard construction.

C. Noticing the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror

E. Having noticed the police car's flashing lights in her rearview mirror

between C and E I choose E without any kind of dubt for reasons of meaning and logic.
C expresses contemporaneity of actions. While she noticed the light, she pulled the car away, and this is illogical.
Firstly, she noticed the light, then she pulled the car.
This construction is perfectly presented in choice E

shahidomer77 · Answer

Can someone explain why C is wrong? expecting a better explaination

GiuPao94 · Answer

Hi, I try again.
The action of "notice" something is not an action that you can perform with continuity. Or, at least, not in this sentence.
You can notice something or not. You can notice a detail in a picture or not, for example.

In C, there is ambiguity. Reading it it looks like Suzanne pulled away the car while noticing the light in the mirror. But this is senseless, because she can notice the light or not, she can't be noticing it.

generis · Answer

shahidomer77  , good questions elicit good answers.

Good questions are specific and are asked politely.

techiesam  , above, gave a good explanation.

What part of that explanation of C and E do you not understand?

yash312 · Answer

Modifier in the form
,having +Verb Ed form ---it use to present an action that took place before the main action mentioned somewhere in the sentence.

Now, in option C : noticing and stopping seems to be happening at same time
However, the order is first she saw the lights and then she stopped the car

Therefore, Option E correctly represents this order

Posted from my mobile device

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

Choices A, B, and C  all incorrectly use present tense verbs in the first clause, which does not agree with the past tense  “pulled”  in the second clause.  Between D and E, E  is more concise and makes a clearer statement of the connection of the lights to the police car. E is the best choice.

Correct answer: E

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When she notices the police car's flashing lights in her rearview

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When she notices the police car's flashing lights in her rearview

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