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Balzac Drank more than Fifty Cups of Coffee A Day and Died of Caffeine GMAT Sentence Correction

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Sayantani Barman

Experta en el extranjero | Updated On - Feb 10, 2023

Question: Balzac drank more than fifty cups of coffee a day and died of caffeine poisoning; furthermore, caffeine did not seem to bother Samuel Johnson, the great writer and lexicographer, who was reported to have drunk twenty-five cups of tea at one sitting.

(A) furthermore, caffeine did not seem to bother
(B) however, caffeine did not seem to bother
(C) however, caffeine did not seem to have bothered
(D) furthermore, caffeine did not seem to have bothered
(E) in addition, caffeine did not seem to bother

Answer: B
Explanation:

The following argument can be used to support the desired linguistic change:

  • Parallelism
  • Thinking about two distinct truths
  • Modifiers

The applicant must have strong grammatical knowledge and a wide vocabulary in order to tackle the sentence repair issues. There is a statement in the highlighted passage in this section.
Five choices are given to the candidate. The candidate must determine which of the available options actually fits in the highlighted area. As a result, the candidate must check each sentence's grammar. Most of the options will have redundant words or grammatical errors. There will only be one right decision.
Given to us in the passage that Balzac had more than fifty cups of coffee every day and passed away from caffeine poisoning; Samuel Johnson, a famous author and lexicographer, is said to have drank 25 cups of tea in one sitting without experiencing any side effects from caffeine.

Let us check the given options.

A: Incorrect
This choice is an incorrect one. The phrases "did not seem to bother" and "does not seem to have bothered" do fact have different meanings. The distinction is that Johnson's coffee tolerance was apparently unaffected in the past, as indicated by the phrase "did not seem to bother."The phrase "doesn't seem to have bothered" suggests that coffee didn't bother Johnson at the time the statement was made.
So, this choice can't be made.

B: Correct
B is the correct choice. The two statements have different meanings because Samuel was not impacted by caffeine, but Balzac was. Therefore, "further" or "in addition" are incorrect words because they don't imply contrast. As a result, A, D, and E can be removed. C might be dropped due to the odd use of the verb "have troubled." B is the response, thus.

C: Incorrect
It is an incorrect choice. Before we get to C, let's look at "does not seem to have troubled." This way of putting it suggests that caffeine hasn't yet had an effect on Samuel. Because "did" denotes the past tense and "have bothered" denotes the "present perfect," which are contradictory, C "did not seem to have bothered" is wrong.

D: Incorrect
It is an incorrect choice. There is a difference in interpretation between Balzac and Samuel since Balzac was affected by caffeine whereas Samuel was not. Because of this, "furthermore" and "in addition" are not the appropriate terms to use because they do not imply contrast. As a result, D is no longer valid.

E: Incorrect
This is an incorrect choice. This choice has the same issues which were found in A. The phrases "did not seem to bother" and "does not seem to have bothered" do fact have different meanings. The distinction is that Johnson's coffee tolerance was apparently unaffected in the past, as indicated by the phrase "did not seem to bother."The phrase "doesn't seem to have bothered" suggests that coffee didn't bother Johnson at the time the statement was made.
So, this choice can't be made.

“Balzac drank more than fifty cups of coffee a day and died of caffeine” is a GMAT sentence correction question. The text that is underlined in these questions has grammatical mistakes, and we must select the right response from the list of possibilities. The GMAT verbal section includes GMAT sentence correction.

Suggested GMAT Sentence Correction Questions

*The article might have information for the previous academic years, please refer the official website of the exam.

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