Bob Wilber became Sidney Bechet’s student and
protege when he was nineteen and, for a few years in
the 1940’s, came as close to being a carbon copy of
the jazz virtuoso in performance as anyone has ever
come.
(A) as anyone has ever come
(B) as anyone ever had been
(C) as anyone ever had done
(D) that anyone ever did
(E) that anyone ever came
GMAT Forum
7 postsPage 1 of 1
- Hanumayamma
Bob Wilber became Sidney
Good One!
Idiom as.... as so eliminate D and E
Among A, B and C
Came as close to being a carbon copy as anyone has ever [being a Carbon Copy or similar] - So we require a being verbs.
Eliminate Action verbs - A and C
Answer: B
Idiom as.... as so eliminate D and E
Among A, B and C
Came as close to being a carbon copy as anyone has ever [being a Carbon Copy or similar] - So we require a being verbs.
Eliminate Action verbs - A and C
Answer: B
- RonPurewal
- Students
- Posts: 19744
- Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 8:23 am
hmm.
i'm going to have to be the dissenting voice here; i personally like (a) better than the other choices.
(d) and (e) are plainly wrong; "as close..." must be followed up by "as".
(c) also doesn't make any sense, because there's no precedent for "done". specifically, the sentence doesn't use any other form of the verb "to do", so "done" isn't properly parallel to anything.
(a) makes sense: he came as close as anyone has ever come. that's totally parallel. also, the "ever" is inserted in the location that's traditionally considered correct for these sorts of things: between the helping verb and the participle (i.e., between "has" and "come"). i don't think it's unidiomatic to write "ever has come", but that would certainly be more awkward than "has ever come".
in (b), you could probably argue for "had been", in the sense that it means "had been ... as close". so that's ok.
as a tiebreaker, though, the placement of "ever" isn't optimal in this choice; "had ever been" would be better.
--
as another tiebreaker, note that (a) is in the present perfect and (b) is in the past perfect. both of these actually make sense, but they have different interpretations:
* present perfect (as in choice a) means that he came closer than anyone else all the way up to the present day
* past perfect (as in choice b) means that he came closer than anyone else up to his time. the use of the past perfect actually implies that someone has since come closer; in particular, the fact that the present perfect isn't used seems to imply this.
the reason this is a tiebreaker is that you're obliged to preserve the meaning of the original sentence, insofar as it actually makes sense. because the present perfect is a valid interpretation, the past perfect constitutes an unacceptable change of meaning.
i'm going to have to be the dissenting voice here; i personally like (a) better than the other choices.
(d) and (e) are plainly wrong; "as close..." must be followed up by "as".
(c) also doesn't make any sense, because there's no precedent for "done". specifically, the sentence doesn't use any other form of the verb "to do", so "done" isn't properly parallel to anything.
(a) makes sense: he came as close as anyone has ever come. that's totally parallel. also, the "ever" is inserted in the location that's traditionally considered correct for these sorts of things: between the helping verb and the participle (i.e., between "has" and "come"). i don't think it's unidiomatic to write "ever has come", but that would certainly be more awkward than "has ever come".
in (b), you could probably argue for "had been", in the sense that it means "had been ... as close". so that's ok.
as a tiebreaker, though, the placement of "ever" isn't optimal in this choice; "had ever been" would be better.
--
as another tiebreaker, note that (a) is in the present perfect and (b) is in the past perfect. both of these actually make sense, but they have different interpretations:
* present perfect (as in choice a) means that he came closer than anyone else all the way up to the present day
* past perfect (as in choice b) means that he came closer than anyone else up to his time. the use of the past perfect actually implies that someone has since come closer; in particular, the fact that the present perfect isn't used seems to imply this.
the reason this is a tiebreaker is that you're obliged to preserve the meaning of the original sentence, insofar as it actually makes sense. because the present perfect is a valid interpretation, the past perfect constitutes an unacceptable change of meaning.
- Guest007
Stop Hanumayamma
Dear Hanumayamma,
Would you stop posting your comments to each question.
9 out of 10 times, when the OA is not given, your answers are wrong.
We have to scroll through your pile of messages to reach Ron/Stacey's comments ...
I prefer looking for answers at Manhattan forums because unlike other forums, I have to scroll lot less to get to the right explanations.
I know that I should ignore your comments, but new users might get confused!
Thanks,
Would you stop posting your comments to each question.
9 out of 10 times, when the OA is not given, your answers are wrong.
We have to scroll through your pile of messages to reach Ron/Stacey's comments ...
I prefer looking for answers at Manhattan forums because unlike other forums, I have to scroll lot less to get to the right explanations.
I know that I should ignore your comments, but new users might get confused!
Thanks,
- jwinawer
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2004 1:15 pm
Re the previous two posts:
First, Ron is right.
Second, please try to be polite to one another. People have the right to post, even if they get the answer wrong. The instructors are not likely to be misled by an incorrect answer from a test-taker, and if you have to scroll a bit, that is the cost of an open forum.
Third, (and on the other hand), if you do not know the answer to a question (i.e. you cannot verify what the right answer is), please make clear that you have not verified it. Don't just assert what you think the answer is.
First, Ron is right.
Second, please try to be polite to one another. People have the right to post, even if they get the answer wrong. The instructors are not likely to be misled by an incorrect answer from a test-taker, and if you have to scroll a bit, that is the cost of an open forum.
Third, (and on the other hand), if you do not know the answer to a question (i.e. you cannot verify what the right answer is), please make clear that you have not verified it. Don't just assert what you think the answer is.
7 posts Page 1 of 1