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The Ancient Sanskrit Epic, The Mahabharata, Developed through a Long Process GMAT Sentence Correction

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Question: The ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, developed through a long process of oral recitation; tradition names the poet Vyasa as author of the core section of 8,000 verses from which is evolved the 24,000 verse redaction of Vaisampayana and the 100,000 verse redaction of Ugrasrava Sauti.

  1. from which is evolved the 24,000 verse redaction of Vaisampayana and the 100,000 verse redaction of Ugrasrava Sauti
  2. with the 24,000 verse redaction of Vaisampayana and the 100,000 verse redaction of Ugrasrava Sauti having evolved from it
  3. from which have evolved the 24,000 verse redaction of Vaisampayana and the 100,000 verse redaction of Ugrasrava Sauti
  4. from which were evolved the 24,000 verse redaction of Vaisampayana and the 100,000 verse redaction of Ugrasrava Sauti
  5. evolved from which is Vaisampayana's 24,000 verse and Ugrasrava Sauti's 100,000 verse redactions

Correct Answer: D
Explanation: This option has accurately maintained the Subject-Verb agreement. It changes the singular verb “is evolved” in the original sentence to the plural verb “were evolved”. Thus it rectifies the mistake in the original sentence. It also rectifies the tense mistake, by utilising the Past tense to represent the action that happened in the past. Therefore, option D is the correct one. Let’s take a look at the other options.

Option A
The statement does not maintain the proper subject-verb agreement. The singular verb “is” is used with the plural subject “the 24,000 verse redaction of Vaisampayana and the 100,000 verse redaction of Ugrasrava Sauti”. Moreover, the statement uses the tense incorrectly. The present tense “is evolved” is used here to depict the action that takes place in the past. Therefore, option A is incorrect and hence gets eliminated.

Option B
The switching “from which” to “with…” makes the meaning of the sentence confusing and awkward. The relation between the core province of Mahabharata and the later redactions is not clearly expressed in the statement. Moreover the phrase “having evolved from it” is redundant and wordy. Hence option B is incorrect.

Option C
This answer choice uses the present perfect tense “have evolved” which is grammatically incorrect. The original statement uses the verb in the past form to infer that the ancient epic developed gradually. Therefore, the same tense should be used to represent the later phases of the evolution of the text. Hence, option C is incorrect.

Option E
The singular verb “is” used in this answer choice does not go with the plural subject redactions. Moreover, the statement uses the possessive form in “Vaisampayana's …. and Ugrasrava Sauti's….” which creates an awkwardness in depicting two parallel items. Hence, the option is incorrect.

“The ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, developed through a long process”- is a GMAT sentence correction question. These sorts of GMAT questions consist of grammatical errors in the underlined part of the sentence. The candidates must choose the correct statement given in the options. The GMAT sentence correction section requires adequate skills in grammar since the candidate has to determine common grammatical errors. GMAT sentence correction is a part of GMAT verbal.

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

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