Charles Lindbergh, for his attempt at a solo transatlantic flight, was very reluctant to have any extra weight on his plane, he therefore refused to carry even a pound of mail, despite being offered $1,000 to do so.

A. Charles Lindbergh, for his attempt at a solo transatlantic flight, was very reluctant to have any extra weight on his plane, he therefore
B. When Charles Lindbergh was attempting his solo transatlantic flight, being very reluctant to have any extra weight on his plane, he
C. Since he was very reluctant to carry any extra weight on his plane when he was attempting his solo transatlantic flight, so Charles Lindbergh
D. Being very reluctant to carry any extra weight on his plane when he attempted his solo transatlantic flight was the reason that Charles Lindbergh
E. Very reluctant to have any extra weight on his plane when he attempted his solo transatlantic flight, Charles Lindbergh

I got this question right in the GMATPREP. Did I got it correct for the right reasons ? Thanks in advance.

A. Charles Lindbergh, ... , he therefore... This construction does not make sense to me.

B. ..., being very reluctant...

C. Since he was ....., so Charles Lindbergh. "So" is wrongly placed here.

D. Being very reluctant...

E. The first clause correctly modifies Charles.

yes, you are right and point out some of the problems with the wrong option, but there are some other problems, you can try to find them out

Actually no, you did not use ANY correct reasons in determining why you made the right decisions. "being" is not a self-destruct button for answer choices, although anytime you see it you should ask yourself whether you can find a reason why it's wrong. In this case "being" is not correctly used as a modifier in B or a a subject in D (ask yourself what it is doing in the sentence - this will often help). A needs a semicolon before introducing another independent clause. C has both a "since" and a "so" when only one is needed (and therefore it is wrong to use both)..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Hello Sir/Ma'am,

Apart from semi-colon, are there any other errors in Option A?

Also in Option D,is the usage of "was the reason that Charles Lindbergh" correct ??

A strikes me as slightly clumsy, but has no errors except that it is a run-on sentence.

I don't quite follow your question about D. The structure here is "X was the reason that Y" where X is a noun phrase and Y is a clause with its own subject. That's OK, but not best. "Money is the reason that most people work." "Jenny is the reason that I moved to Atlanta." Meh. Not wrong, but clumsy.

Further, if X is a very complicated noun phrase, especially one that starts with a gerund, the sentence will quickly become very difficult to understand. "Skiing the black-diamond telemark course with the team is the only reason I brought my racing gear." Wha...?

Hi instructor,

In D, the usage of "was the reason that Charles Lindbergh" seems change the original meaning, I mean, "X was the reason that Y" is not the key point of original sentence.

Am I wrong?

THANKS.

every single word you change, in any sentence ever, changes the meaning. please don't fall into the trap of assuming you have to adhere to the meaning of the original. not only is grammar far more important than meaning, but if the original sentence is wrong then you HAVE to change the meaning, even if only slightly. you only get rid of answer choices based on the meaning if they present a meaning that cannot work logically or syntactically. D is wrong for some very specific grammar reasons, and that’s what you should focus on..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Hi Tim,

I do not think I understand why the Being used in D as a subject is incorrect. Would you please help me on this issue. I have seen one correct sentence in OG (this question also appear in Prep, I hope it did not violate the copyright rule here) use "being" as a subject very well, and I had learn a post from Ron about this question, he mentioned that when "being" used as a actual SUBJECT of the sentence, this usage is correct (exception), I think this is the case in this choice, being is used as a Subject here. Moreover, you mentioned "D is wrong for some very specific grammar reasons, and that’s what you should focus on..", could you please clarify this Q for me?

Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.

Thanks!
Lucas

The grammar issue I alluded to with respect to D is the one that involves "being". Please understand that just as "being" is not always wrong just because it appears in a sentence, it is also not always right just because it is used as a subject. A good way to test whether "being" is correctly used as a subject is to ask yourself a question that the "being" phrase can answer:

in your OG example...
What "is likely to make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear"?
"Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past"
This answer makes sense. On the other hand...

What "was the reason that Charles Lindbergh refused to carry even a pound of mail"?
"Being very reluctant to carry any extra weight on his plane"
This is just not how you answer a question like this. When someone asks you "what is the reason that X happened?", the answer is not "being Y". This is why "being" cannot be used as a subject here. The "being" phrase here would be more appropriate as a modifier for Charles Lindbergh if the sentence were restructured to accommodate that.

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Tons of Thanks! Tim

I will apply this rule.

Thanks

I like this question. It is hard but basic and that is why gmatprep makes high quality questions.

Only when you understand what gmat want to test in a sc problem, we can master the problem and can make similar problems of high quality

Let me make some remote discusion so that we can master many questions on the test day and have a good thinking of SC.

adverbial modifies whole sentence. The problem is that in what relation with main claue, the adverbial is in. If adverbial is absolute phrase, it provide context for main clause and gmat test this by providing the cases in which absolute phrase is in the causal relation or simultaneous relation in incorrect answer choices.

In some case, when adverbial is DOING PHRASE, and the correct semantic relation between adverbial-doing phrase is simultaneous, gmat make it incorrect by make the simultanous relation causal one or subsequent relation. The purpose is to make us to realize the correct semantic (in meaning) relation and make us to write exact meaning.

gmat can move around the adverbial to distort the meaning of correct answer. pls, read articles of Stacey in beatthegmat forum for this.

what I want to say is that when gmat want to distort meaning of correct answer choice and make us realize the intended meaning in a SC problem, and when gmat doing so by TOUCHING the adverbial of the sentence, we have a hard problem. why hard, because it is hard to realize the illogic of adverbial

gmat can distort correct sentence by changing the semantic (in meaning) relation between adverbial and main clause (most hardest questions are in this type) by changing the place of adverbial

coming back to the quetion here. what is correct relation between the event "reluctant..." and the event "refuse..." only E makes correct relation. All other relations causal, simultaneous, are wrong.

RELATION BETWEEN 2 EVENTS is a good thinking.

thanks for sharing your thoughts. if there was a question there that i missed, please let me know..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Maybe my thinking is biased.

I do not know why, "being reluctant....." in B is wrong?, pls, explain. The phrase is inserted between 2 clause. Is this placement of the phrase correct? pls, help

Taken from some other post -

you should avoid "being" when expressing the IDENTITY or CHARACTERISTICS of some individual or thing.
otherwise, evaluate it on the same merits as you would any other verb

Example - being a avid gamer, Jim plays everyday - Incorrect
A avid gamer, Jim plays everyday - Correct

Buy this law we can eliminate B and D

in B, the clause "when...." and the phrase "being..." are not good when they are placed side by side.

"when..." clause should be followed by a main clause

is that right?