poorvi125 wrote:
GMATNinjaPlease help in option elimination. Although this appears in a low difficulty level, I got this wrong in my mock attempt and I am lost why.
Quote:
(A) 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.
This one is a run-on sentence, which boils down to: "Lindbergh was reluctant, he therefore refused..." We would need a conjunction ("and" or "but" or something like that) after the comma to link the two independent clauses.
Quote:
(B) When Charles Lindbergh was attempting his solo transatlantic flight, being very reluctant to have any extra weight on his plane, he refused to carry even a pound of mail, despite being offered $1,000 to do so.
This one makes it sound as though Lindbergh refused to carry the mail WHEN he was attempting the flight. Did someone text Lindbergh during the flight and ask him to make a delivery? Also, it's unclear whether the "being" part modifies the phrase before it or the phrase after it.
We could argue that there are no DEFINITE errors here, but the meaning isn't very clear at all, and we can probably do better...
Quote:
(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 refused to carry even a pound of mail, despite being offered $1,000 to do so.
"Since he was reluctant, so he refused..." The "since" and the "so" are redundant here.
And again, was he reluctant only WHEN he was actually flying the plane? In other words, does the "when" part tell us exactly when he was reluctant? Or exactly when he didn't want to carry the extra weight? It's not entirely clear.
Again, we might be able to argue that these aren't absolute errors. But they definitely aren't great. You could keep (C) if you wanted to, but we'll see a better option in a moment.
Let's look at these last two side-by-side:
Quote:
(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 refused to carry even a pound of mail, despite being offered $1,000 to do so.
(E) Very reluctant to have any extra weight on his plane when he attempted his solo transatlantic flight, Charles Lindbergh refused to carry even a pound of mail, despite being offered $1,000 to do so.
(D) and (E) aren't very different. But why say, "
Being reluctant to carry extra weight was the reason that Lindbergh..." when we can just say, "Reluctant to have extra weight, Lindbergh..."? The modifier is clearer and more direct in (E).
Also, "have extra weight" is a bit better than "carry extra weight." "Carry" makes it sound like Lindbergh would be holding the mail in his arms the whole time, as opposed to just
having the extra weight on his plane.
Not too many glaring issues here, but (E) is the clearest and best of the five options.