Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, knew how to use a good story to generate good will.
(A) Lincoln, discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, knew
(B) Discovering in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler has learned before him, Lincoln knew
(C) Lincoln, discovering the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned in young manhood before him, knew
(D) In young manhood Lincoln discovered the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him;
(E) Lincoln, discovered in young manhood the secret that the Yankee peddler had learned before him, knew

OA is B. I do not like it because I think past perfect should be used. I picked C even though I do not like the placement of the participial phrase. Actually I think both these choices suck. But why does b suck less. Thanks.

I agree with you that B is a little funny with that present perfect. Changing it to past perfect would make it better. But, as you know, we're not given that option.

I suppose it comes down to C's meaning: it claims that the Yankee peddler learned the secret when the Yankee peddler's young manhood. Not quite what the original meaning is... namely that Lincoln's discovery happened while Lincoln was a young man. I also suppose the GMAT prefers B over A because A puts the subject and verb closer together.

Rey

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Please don't waste time on this SC. This does not belong to GMATPrep. I wasted a lot of time and don't want others to do the same.

eather12, like the post from "guest" above, I am suspicious of this question: either it did not come from GMAT prep or you posted the wrong answer. B makes no sense to me. Please confirm where you saw the question (and the official answer). Thanks.