Joan of Arc, A Young Frenchwoman Who Claimed to be Divinely Inspired, Turned the Tide of English Victories in Her Country

Question: Joan of Arc, a young Frenchwoman who claimed to be divinely inspired, turned the tide of English victories in her country by liberating the city of Orleans and she persuaded Charles VII of France to claim his throne.

1. She persuaded Charles VII of France to claim his throne
2. Persuaded Charles VII of France in claiming his throne
3. Persuading that the throne be claimed by Charles VII of France
4. Persuaded Charles VII of France to claim his throne
5. Persuading that Charles VII of France should claim the throne

“Joan of Arc, a young Frenchwoman who claimed to be divinely inspired, turned the tide of English victories in her country.”- is a GMAT sentence correction question. This particular GMAT sentence correction topic has been taken from the book ‘The Official Guide of GMAT Verbal Review, 2nd Edition, 2009’. This question checks Parallelism, Comparison of two elements and Modifiers. GMAT Sentence Correction questions comprise 11-16 questions to be completed within 65 minutes. Each Sentence Correction question contains a sentence with an underlined portion that includes 0-2 errors.

Answer: D

Explanation: The following concepts are tested here:

1. Meaning
2. Verb forms
3. Grammatical construction
4. Idioms

Option A: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it incorrectly uses the conjunction “and” to join the independent clauses “John of …….. liberating the city of Orleans” and “she persuaded …..throne”. Always remember that semicolons and the “comma+conjunction” are used to link to independent clauses. So, Option A is incorrect.

Option B: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it wrongly uses the unidiomatic construction “persuaded+in’, which does not make sense at all. The right construction should be “persuaded+to”. Since the choice uses wrong construction, Option B is incorrect.

Option C: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it changes the meaning of the sentence by using the phrase “persuading that the throne be claimed”. This phrase leads to an incoherent meaning of the sentence. Also, it uses the present participle to refer to an action that has been concluded in the past. Simple past tense is used to refer to such actions. So, Option C is incorrect.

Option D: Correct
This option is correct because it uses the phrase “persuaded Charles VII of France to claim” that conveys the intended meaning of the sentence. Also, it uses the simple past tense “persuaded” to refer to an action that has concluded in the past. So, Option D is correct.

Option E: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it changes the meaning of the sentence by using the phrase “Persuading that Charles VII of France should claim” that fails to convey the intended meaning of the sentence. Also, it incorrectly uses present participle to refer to an event that has concluded in the past. So, Option E is incorrect.

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