SC: Dressed as a man and using the name Robert Shurtleff

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

What are the mistakes in the following SC?

Dressed as a man and using the name Robert Shurtleff, Deborah Sampson, the first woman to draw a soldier´s pension, joined the Continental Army in 1782 at the age of 22, was injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she had become too ill to serve.

A. 22, was injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she had become
B. 22, was injured three times, while being discharged in 1783 because she had become
C. 22, and was injured three times, and discharged in 1783, being
D. 22, injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she was
E. 22, having been injured three times and discharged in 1783, being

[sunny.jain]

IMO: A

i did not find a good split here, so i eliminated each option one by one.

when i dont find split, i generally starts from option E.( no reason, but i like that way)

Option E: having been injured --> Absolutely Wrong.

Option: D

Deborah Sampson
joined the Continental Army in 1782 at the age of 22
injured three times
and was discharged in 1783 because she was

Sounds great, so i will keep in pocket and move forward.

Option C:
Tow times "and", wrong parallelism : OUt

Option B:
usage of while means while she was discharged, she was injured. so distort the meaning.

Option A:
Deborah Sampson
joined the Continental Army in 1782 at the age of 22
was injured three times
and was discharged in 1783 because she had become

the only difference between D and A is:
usage of 'was' in second element
and usage of 'had' in 3rd element --> means some sequence.

Yeah it could possibly saying that She had become too ill to serve in 1983 so she was discharged.

so Option A is the winner here.

[amits]

Option A is correct as it shows the sequence by the use of past perfect tense had become. She had become ill before she was discharged in 1783.

I do not find anything wrong in A.

[RonPurewal]

What are the mistakes in the following SC?

Dressed as a man and using the name Robert Shurtleff, Deborah Sampson, the first woman to draw a soldier´s pension, joined the Continental Army in 1782 at the age of 22, was injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she had become too ill to serve.

A. 22, was injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she had become
B. 22, was injured three times, while being discharged in 1783 because she had become
C. 22, and was injured three times, and discharged in 1783, being
D. 22, injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she was
E. 22, having been injured three times and discharged in 1783, being

you can actually solve this problem on the basis of parallelism and verb form alone.
you have a SEQUENCE OF EVENTS, so they should be PARALLEL.
also, "was injured" and "was discharged" should be in the passive voice, since deborah sampson was the recipient (not the agent) of these actions.

so you need "joined..., was injured..., and was discharged...."
the only choice that does this is (a).

[sunny.jain]

What are the mistakes in the following SC?

Dressed as a man and using the name Robert Shurtleff, Deborah Sampson, the first woman to draw a soldier´s pension, joined the Continental Army in 1782 at the age of 22, was injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she had become too ill to serve.

A. 22, was injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she had become
B. 22, was injured three times, while being discharged in 1783 because she had become
C. 22, and was injured three times, and discharged in 1783, being
D. 22, injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she was
E. 22, having been injured three times and discharged in 1783, being

you can actually solve this problem on the basis of parallelism and verb form alone.
you have a SEQUENCE OF EVENTS, so they should be PARALLEL.
also, "was injured" and "was discharged" should be in the passive voice, since deborah sampson was the recipient (not the agent) of these actions.

so you need "joined..., was injured..., and was discharged...."
the only choice that does this is (a).

Hi Ron,

this Q is from OG 12 and OA is A.

[anoo.anand]

A. 22, was injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she had become


seems to be a TYPO by RON,

was injured...was discharged....parallel.....

[StaceyKoprince]

this Q is from OG 12 and OA is A.

This folder is for GMATPrep problems only. Did this problem also show up in GMATPrep? Or did you find it only in OG?

Please let us know, as we cannot host problems that show up only in OG. If we do not receive confirmation that this problem appeared on GMATPrep, we will have to delete the whole thing.

[tankobe]

this Q is from OG 12 and OA is A.

This folder is for GMATPrep problems only. Did this problem also show up in GMATPrep? Or did you find it only in OG?

Please let us know, as we cannot host problems that show up only in OG. If we do not receive confirmation that this problem appeared on GMATPrep, we will have to delete the whole thing.

checked, the problem, although appearing in OG12 #36, can also be found in GMATPrep.

[RonPurewal]

this Q is from OG 12 and OA is A.

This folder is for GMATPrep problems only. Did this problem also show up in GMATPrep? Or did you find it only in OG?

Please let us know, as we cannot host problems that show up only in OG. If we do not receive confirmation that this problem appeared on GMATPrep, we will have to delete the whole thing.

checked, the problem, although appearing in OG12 #36, can also be found in GMATPrep.

thanks.

[lamesis2106]

hi Ron :
I want to ask why A use ""and was discharged in 1783 because she had become""?

If we use "joined the Continental Army in 1782" past tense,
why we can use past perfect tense in 1783?

Thanks for your reply

[RonPurewal]

If we use "joined the Continental Army in 1782" past tense,
why we can use past perfect tense in 1783?

the past perfect is used for ENDURING ACTIONS/STATES that are STILL ONGOING at some LATER PAST TIMEFRAME.

in this case, the paired verbs are "had become" and "was discharged"
i.e., "had become..." is an enduring action that persisted up until, and was relevant to, the action "was discharged".

these verbs are not paired with the other verbs in the parallel structure; the past perfect refers only to that verb's relevance to "was discharged".

if every verb in a complex sentence had to have the same relationship to every other verb in that sentence, that would pretty much render complex sentences impossible to write!

[megmortal]

What are the mistakes in the following SC?

Dressed as a man and using the name Robert Shurtleff, Deborah Sampson, the first woman to draw a soldier´s pension, joined the Continental Army in 1782 at the age of 22, was injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she had become too ill to serve.

A. 22, was injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she had become
B. 22, was injured three times, while being discharged in 1783 because she had become
C. 22, and was injured three times, and discharged in 1783, being
D. 22, injured three times, and was discharged in 1783 because she was
E. 22, having been injured three times and discharged in 1783, being

you can actually solve this problem on the basis of parallelism and verb form alone.
you have a SEQUENCE OF EVENTS, so they should be PARALLEL.
also, "was injured" and "was discharged" should be in the passive voice, since deborah sampson was the recipient (not the agent) of these actions.

so you need "joined..., was injured..., and was discharged...."
the only choice that does this is (a).

Hi Ron,

so active voice verbs can be parallel to passive voice verbs?

[tim]

That is correct..

[violetwind]

Hi Ron
Can D be right? if we just make "Joined" and "was discharged" parallel, with "injured 3 times" as a past participle modifier?

and I don't feel the "was too ill to serve" is so wrong as there's no obvious implication that time order of events must be shown in the non-underlined part .

or : if Choice A have used past perfect tense in a right way, even the answer is not A, the final choice should use part perfect tence?

PS."injure"can only be a transitive verb but no an intransitive one,right?

[RonPurewal]

Can D be right? if we just make "Joined" and "was discharged" parallel, with "injured 3 times" as a past participle modifier?

no -- that would be nonsense.
"was injured 3 times" is clearly something that happened after she joined the army; it can't modify the stuff that precedes it.

remember that modifier errors generally aren't grammar errors; they are generally meaning errors.

and I don't feel the "was too ill to serve" is so wrong as there's no obvious implication that time order of events must be shown in the non-underlined part .

i see where you're coming from here. however, the past participle (described above) is definitely an error.

PS."injure"can only be a transitive verb but no an intransitive one,right?

heh, i had to go to google and find out what "transitive" and "intransitive" verbs are. (i actually have to do this often -- i haven't memorized much terminology, even after posting here thousands of times.)

yeah, you can't use "injure" without an object.
also, the object must be either a person (joe was injured in a fight) or a body part (joe injured his back).
in a more formal, legalistic context, it can also refer to a person's reputation (the defendant's actions injured mr. smith's reputation), although i don't think you're going to see that kind of usage on the gmat.

e.g., you can't "injure" a wall by punching a hole in it (you'd have to use a word like "damage" instead in that case).