William Sydney Porter, who began writing while he was in prison for : Sentence Correction (SC)

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William Sydney Porter, who began writing while he was in prison for

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Joined: 31 Oct 2011

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William Sydney Porter, who began writing while he was in prison for [#permalink]

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03 Apr 2012, 13:14

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Difficulty:

45% (medium)

Question Stats:

55% (01:06) correct

45% (01:09) wrong

based on 290 sessions

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William Sydney Porter, who began writing while he was in prison for embezzlement, was seeking anonymity when he chose the pseudonym O. Henry.

(A) was seeking anonymity when he chose
(B) was seeking that he might be anonymous when he chose
(C) was seeking for anonymity and therefore chose
(D) sought anonymity in the choosing of
(E) sought to be anonymous in that he chose

Spoiler: ::

1. What's the difference between "seeking anonymity" and seeking for anonymity" in terms of meaning?

2. Is the reason that C isn't the OA the part " therefore chose"? or "seeking for anonymity" also sounds awkward ?

Spoiler: OA

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Re: William Sydney Porter, who began writing while he was in prison for [#permalink]

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03 Apr 2012, 17:56

Quote:

I wish I could remember under which rule of grammar this falls (can anyone else save the day here?) but the short answer for both questions is that one would never say "seeking for x". One would always say "searching for x" to convey the same meaning as "seeking x".

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Re: William Sydney Porter, who began writing while he was in prison for [#permalink]

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23 Apr 2012, 11:34

eybrj2 wrote:

William Sydney Porter, who began writing while he was in prison for embezzlement, was seeking anonymity when he chose the pseudonym O. Henry.

(A)...
(B) was seeking that he might be anonymous when he chose
(C) was seeking for anonymity and therefore chose
(D) sought anonymity in the choosing of
(E) sought to be anonymous in that he chose

Quote:

1. What's the difference between "seeking anonymity" and seeking for anonymity" in terms of meaning?

seeking anonymity - you want to be anonymous
seeking for anonymity - seeking for anonymity as if anonymity is a lost entity e.g. seeking for pen

Quote:

2. Is the reason that C isn't the OA the part " therefore chose"? or "seeking for anonymity" also sounds awkward ?

"seeking for anonymity" is incorrect as explained above

(B) was seeking that he might be anonymous when he chose was seeking what ??
(C) was seeking for anonymity and therefore chose seeking for anonymity - INCORRECT
(D) sought anonymity in the choosing of - how can anonymity can be sought in something ??
(E) sought to be anonymous in that he chose - in that - INCORRECT

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William Sydney Porter, who began writing while he was in prison for [#permalink]

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23 Feb 2019, 13:05

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma daagh Could you please explain why A is better than E?

A: Uses past continuous
E: Past tense. I don't see any distortion in meaning as compared to A.

I believe we usually prefer non-continuous verbs over continuous verbs unless continuous verbs are necessary. I believe A is correct due to verb parallelism in which we want "seeking (when)" to be parallel to "(began) writing". (2 Past Continuous Verbs).
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