With his last three plays Mr. Leonard has turned increasingly toward a

Question

With his last three plays Mr. Leonard has turned increasingly toward autobiographical material and,  like Eugene O'Neill's, have come to terms with a difficult personal history through their  dramatizations.

(A) like Eugene O'Neill's have come to terms with a difficult personal history through their

(B) like Eugene O'Neill's, has come to terms with a difficult personal history through his

(C) as Eugene O'Neill's did, has come to terms with a difficult personal history through their

(D) as Eugene O'Neill has done, have come to terms with a difficult personal history through their

(E) as with Eugene O'Neill, has come to terms with a difficult personal history through his

their dramatizations or his dramatization ???

GMATNinja · Accepted Answer

I think this looks really good. "Like" doesn't make sense, since we're not directly comparing O'Neill's plays with Leonard's plays, so (A) and (B) are clearly out. (D) has a subject-verb error.

The problem with (E) isn't necessarily that "as with" is awkward. Since we have a comparison using "as", the two phrases being compared need to be structurally parallel -- and they really aren't here. Rearranging (E) a little bit, we get the following comparison: "As with Eugene O'Neill, with his (Leonard's) last three plays..." And that really doesn't make sense: we're comparing "with O'Neill" to "with Leonard's plays." So that takes care of (E).

So what about the pronoun in (C)? Whenever you see "their", you should always look for a plural noun earlier in the sentence, and we only have one option here: "plays." And that actually works! "...though the plays' dramatizations." So (C) is perfectly fine.

daagh · Answer

A debatable question.

Which is correct? O’Neill or O’Neill’s, (whether O’Neill’s is proper noun or possessive noun? I believe O’Neill is the proper noun, as choice D and E indicate. If so, A, B and C are out, since we are comparing a person with some other’s works. 
Even so, D is wrong using the plural verb ‘have’ for the singular Leonard. In E, the pronoun ‘their’ may indeed refer to the three plays, as there is no other plural noun in the passage. If we attribute ‘his’ to Leonard’s dramatizations, then, ‘his’ might fit with O’Neill as well.
In addition, to say that he did ‘as with O’Neill’ is to wrong the intended meaning. Can we have so much muddle in a choice? Where do we go from here?

Another general observation is the presence of the comma after 'and'. We have seen sentences with a comma before 'and' or even without, but one after 'and' in all the choices is very suspect.

MHIKER · Answer

Mr. Leonard's autobiography is comparing with O'Neill's. Together their dramatizatios.

warriorguy · Answer

Hello  GMATNinja ,

Amazing explanation. I have a query regarding the usage of 'his'.

With all other errors corrected, can we say that 'his dramatizations' is considered correct? I feel that 'their' is more opt.

Leonard has come to terms with a difficult personal history. How did he achieve this? Through the play's dramatization.

We need something that can be dramatized. what does 'his dramatization' refer to? Leonard? The plays are a dramatization of Leonard. seems awkward.

Please correct me, if wrong.

GMATNinja · Answer

Thank you for the kind words, warriorguy ! The distinction between "his" and "their" is a non-issue, since you really don't have to choose between the two of them. I actually think that either would be fine here. "The plays' dramatizations" is arguably a little bit better, but you could also argue that Leonard created the dramatizations in those plays, so it's not wrong to say that they're "Leonard's dramatizations." But again: the question was (probably deliberately) written in a way that makes it a non-issue.

Mo2men · Answer

Dear  GMATNinja

I have searched all GMAT paper tests and I did not find this question in any one. Have you seen this question in any official source?

Thanks

GMATNinja · Answer

I don't see it in any of the GMAT paper tests that I have copies of, but it's possible that I'm just missing something -- and if I'm not mistaken, they've published and "un-published" some of the paper tests over the years, anyway. So it's possible that this is from one of the paper tests that is no longer sold via the GMAC website.

If anybody can find the exact paper test that this comes from, I'd love to hear about it!

Mahmud6 · Answer

Somehow, I have come across that  comma after 'and' makes the followings a modifier.  I have the following examples in hand to mention in this regard.

1. Whereas both Europe and China use standard railroad gauge (1435 mm), Russia deliberately chose the wider “Russian gauge” (1520 mm) that gives greater side-to-side stability in railways cars  and, more importantly,  acts as a national defense, blocking foreign army’s supply line and preventing these bordering powers from invading by train.

2. The health commissioner said that the government had implemented strict measures to eradicate the contaminated food  and, despite the recent illnesses,  that it would try to prevent the outbreak from recurring in the future.

3. Adolphe Menjou, known as the “most well-dressed man in America” for many years, starred in many movies as an impeccably dressed profession,  and, accordingly,  he entitled his autobiography “It Took Nine Tailors.”

4. The disaster agency revealed to the press the power of the hurricane and the extent of its damage,  and, because continuing rain was preventing relief efforts,  it expressed fear for the welfare of the survivors.

5. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, known as PTSD, is usually caused by an individual’s exposure to extremely traumatic events  and, in particular if the incident is extreme,  can occur as a result of the mind’s attemp to sort through memories involving stressful events.

techiesam · Answer

GMATNinja ,

Sir,with all due respect,how come his vs their is a non issue in that question.I found them very relevant.We are talking of dramatization of these three plays so we need to use their instead of "his".Please correct me if I'm wrong.

GMATNinja · Answer

When I said "non-issue", I just meant that you can answer the question correctly without paying any attention at all to the distinction between "his" and "their", as described above: https://gmatclub.com/forum/with-his-las ... l#p1890029. Just as importantly, I don't think that there's a clear distinction between "his" and "their" in the context of this specific question, since either of those could plausibly be correct. Both "Leonard's dramatizations" or "the plays' dramatizations" would make sense. So I just don't think that the distinction between "his" and "their" is important at all in this case, since the "split" is open to plenty of debate -- and because it's easy to avoid the issue entirely. I hope this helps!

TheRzS · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja ,

Thanks for the explanation.
I chose C and then I rejected C because of the Possessive  O'Neill 's  did 
Why the  's , what exactly is it referring to?

Thanks and regards

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hi TheRzS,

Thanks for your question! In answer C, the possessive "O'Neill's" is referring to the  plays  that O'Neill also wrote. You could just as easily spell it out for readers by saying "as Eugene O'Neill's plays did," but that's not necessary - the reader can infer that's what it means.

I hope this helps!

ankitamundhra28 · Answer

Hi All

Could someone please explain the  meaning of the correct sentence ?
Before getting to the POE & Answer choice analysis, its imperative to understand what the sentence wants to convey and I didn't get that right...
Thanks!

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Hello  ankitamundhra28

Let's take a look at the correct sentence:

With his last three plays Mr. Leonard has turned increasingly toward autobiographical material and, as Eugene O'Neill's did, has come to terms with a difficult personal history through their dramatizations.

There are 3 main ideas they were looking for here:

1. Mr. Leonard's last 3 plays were autobiographical (written mainly about his own life/experiences)
2. These plays helped Mr. Leonard come to terms with his difficult past
3. Eugene O'Neill's plays ALSO were autobiographical AND helped him deal with his own tough past

The phrase "as Eugene O'Neill's did" clearly shows that we're comparing Mr. Leonard's plays with O'Neill's plays (which is parallel), and the verb "did" agrees with the plural subject it's referring to (O'Neills plays).

I hope this helps! This is a tricky question that is worded in a way that makes it even tougher to answer!

Aruni1991 · Answer

How is the comparison in the 2nd part, between "E.O.'s plays" and " L. coming to terms with a difficult personal history through their(plays') dramatization" coming about

EducationAisle · Answer

Hi  Aruni1991 , basically C is saying:

…..as Eugene O'Neill's did (came to terms with a difficult personal history through their dramatizations), Mr. Leonard has come to terms with a difficult personal history through their dramatizations .

Please note that  do/did/does  can substitute for  any verb  in the main sentence (for example, in this sentence, did is substituting for  came ).

p.s. Our book    EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana    discusses  this aspect of the verbs "do/did/does" . Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.

pk6969 · Answer

HI! why is as preferred over like?

mSKR · Answer

As: compare actions
Like: compare SIMILAR nouns
No one prefer as over like .Preference is based on meaning and we have no logical comparison in other options.

Bambi2021 · Answer

This is a very hard sentence. Key is that "their" can never refer back to a possessive. Thats why "their" must refer to "plays" and not to "O Neill and Mr Leonard".

The correct structure is:

With his last three plays 
Mr. Leonard has turned increasingly toward autobiographical material
and,
as Eugene O'Neill's plays did, 
Mr Leonard's plays has come to terms with a difficult personal history through the plays' dramatizations.

Its hard to realize the meaning that "plays" and not "persons" are coming to terms with a personal history.

Correct me if Im wrong.

Edit: Im actually not convinced that a play can come to terms with something. But here are some similar examples were something else than a natural agent (a person, a firm, a company etc.) are coming to terms with something:

"It seems to me that the book has come to terms with the fact that Maps is clearly the fan favorite."

"Lucas leads the farmers to revenge themselves upon the city folk. The story has come to terms with the planet not being able to be “fixed”."

"A story has come to terms with completely randomized design or method of data collection methods of organizing and filing information were still..."

With his last three plays Mr. Leonard has turned increasingly toward a

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

With his last three plays Mr. Leonard has turned increasingly toward a

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