Written in the early eleventh century by Lady Murasaki Shikibu as a

Hi guys, D is correct.

You may think idiom "consider.... to be" is wrong, but it's not. It's RARELY used in real GMAT, in real GMAT, we're better off to stick with "consider X Y". (You can refer to Manhattan SC Gmat, idiom "consider X to be Y" is a suspect case, not wrong.)

However, in the passive voice sentence, idiom "X is considered by Y to be Z" is acceptable.

Hope it helps.

(A) Shikibu as a fictionalized account of political and romantic intrigue in the Japanese imperial court, literary historians consider The Tale of Genji to be –A very obvious modification error. ; After the comma (court), the Tale of Genji, should come

(B) Shikibu in the manner of a fictionalized account of political and romantic intrigue in the Japanese imperial court, literary historians consider The Tale of Genji as --- same as in A

(C) Shikibu, a fictionalized accounting for political and romantic intrigue in the Japanese imperial court, literary historians consider The Tale of Genji--------Same as in A and B

(D) Shikibu as a fictionalized account of political and romantic intrigue in the Japanese imperial court, The Tale of Genji is considered by literary historians to be --- In spite of the - to be – controversy, the best, I believe.

(E) Shikibu, The Tale of Genji is a fictionalized account of political and romantic intrigue in the Japanese imperial court which literary historians consider to be --- What does which( leave alone the absence of comma before –which- ) modify: the Court. A horrible modification that compares the court to a novel

It is natural to get upset when we are forced to use consider to be in the place of just consider; But if the choices have unpardonable grammar errors, you might pass the idiomatic dilemma and cling on to a choice that does not have such a flagrant blunder. That way, IMO, D is passable as the best among the not so palatable.

Do we then have order of priority for errors like we have it in quant for mathematical operators?

May be priority is not so explicitly stated, but, it is a natural process. For example, a pronoun ambiguity is sometimes ignored by the GMAT; similarly, punctuation is not a great concern form GMAT. But still they are mistakes. CAn we cling on to them? In the given case, if we do not pardon the idiom aspect, the problem isn’t worth testing. That is why I said taht since it is not a GMAT question, let's at least practise other errors.

Normally GMAC prefers the following:
Correctness > Clarity > Concision

First priority is filter out grammatical mistakes.
Second priority is to check for ambiguity and redundancy.
Third to check for short and sweet option.

AS noted by everyone, none of the option is "right" but D is the "best" of the lot. I guess daagh provided the best and to the point explanation.

However, if the question is actually taken from Kaplan, it must have been a very old version. The reason GMAC comes out with a new version of OG is that it deprecates some kinds of questions with time. "consider to be" is deprecated and will never appear on GMAT now. In fact, if you consider OG13, there are hardly any idiom questions. This is designed so that GMAT favors non-natives as well. Idioms come naturally to native speakers but not non-natives.

So I won't stress too much about "consider X to be Y" vs "consider X Y".

Sometimes there is the tendency on this board to consider a question terrible or not well written because:

- do not understand the question itself

- there is a lack of truly comprehension of the same.

- are followed the thoughts of others without thinking on your own, critically.

As such, I do not see nothing bad with it. Moreover, I see it as a good question maybe 650 level to practise and a bit tricky.

We have a dependet clause (indeed very long) and a indipendent clause to follow.

Not wrong with that, taking it with a grain of salt

regards

I disagree. Barring the blatant idiomatic error, the other errors in the other answer choices are pretty easy to spot, and I'm sure most people who answered this incorrectly feel the same. The main issue here is the debatable nature of the OA. From what I've seen, idioms in the GMAT world are black and white -- either they are used correctly or incorrectly. While there might be subjectivity in conciseness, diction, or style, there is no subjectivity to idioms in the GMAT world.

In response to your point: "- are followed the thoughts of others without thinking on your own, critically." -- if I had the liberty to critically think on my own on the GMAT, I would create a choice "F" and correct the idiom error. I don't know about you, but if the GMAC tells me that the sky is red, then I sure as hell am going to answer that the sky is red on the GMAT; and in the OG problems I've seen, the GMAC has established that "consider" is NOT followed by "to be".

It fascinates me, when reading responses to questions like these, how much of an unfair advantage I have by being a native english speaker.

"considered to be" is completely idiomatically correct.

"considered by many to be" is also an extremely common phrase and completely idiomatically correct. It didn't even register as a possible reason for invalidating option D when I read it.

Unfortunately , as far as GMAT is concerned , it is safe to play by the rule as opposed to ear . There are lot of constructions that seem perfectly fine in day to day usage, for most of them here , but the GMAT considers them wrong. ( eg - "Plan On" - I am planning on meeting them today . Sounds perfectly ok . we use "Plan on" more often than "Plan to" ( which is correct). But GMAT considers it wrong. So safe bet is to rely less on ear and more on the rules. Unfortunately it is GMAC's play ground and we gotta follow their rules.

Below is a post from one of the manhattan gmat tutors on this idiom . Thought it might help.

you could use all three in a non-GMAT context. It's risky to use the words "always" and "never" in any explanation of idioms!

However, our official GMAT stance is:
RIGHT: considers X Y (e.g. I consider her a friend.)
SUSPECT: considers X to be Y (e.g. The judge considers the law to be unconstitutional.)
WRONG: considers X as Y. (e.g. The judge considers the law as (being)unconstitutional.)

The exceptions that would justify "as" are too rare and difficult for the GMAT to risk testing. There would almost certainly be some other grammar issues that would allow you select the right answer, but if not, play it safe and pick "consider X Y."

There is clear modifier problem is here. The opening modifier "Written in the early eleventh century by Lady Murasaki Shikibu" can not refer to " literary historians" because it is illogical. Opening modifier must refer to "The Tale of Genji" because it is only logical referance.

Hence Option A,B,C are clearly rejected.


(A) Shikibu as a fictionalized account of political and romantic intrigue in the Japanese imperial court, literary historians consider The Tale of Genji to be - Modifier issue as described above

(B) Shikibu in the manner of a fictionalized account of political and romantic intrigue in the Japanese imperial court, literary historians consider The Tale of Genji as - Modifier issue as described above

(C) Shikibu, a fictionalized accounting for political and romantic intrigue in the Japanese imperial court, literary historians consider The Tale of Genji - Modifier issue as described above

(D) Shikibu as a fictionalized account of political and romantic intrigue in the Japanese imperial court, The Tale of Genji is considered by literary historians to be - Correct option. Modifier issue solved.

(E) Shikibu, The Tale of Genji is a fictionalized account of political and romantic intrigue in the Japanese imperial court which literary historians consider to be - Here "which" as a modifier is problem. "Which" can only modify the noun which it touches. Here which is near to " Japanese imperial court". Japanese imperial court is not what literary historians consider to be the world's first novel. So, This option is incorrect.

I would like to disagree with the "plan on" being considered wrong by the GMAT. Here is an example from the GMAT official prep pack which uses "plan on" in the correct answer.
https://gmatclub.com/forum/according-to ... ml#p602529

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