Until Antoine Lavoisier Proved Otherwise in the Eighteenth Century, Many Scientists had Believed that Combustion Released Phlogiston

Question: Until Antoine Lavoisier proved otherwise in the eighteenth century, many scientists had believed that combustion released phlogiston, an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood.

(A) many scientists had believed that combustion released phlogiston, an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood
(B) many scientists believed that phlogiston was an imaginary substance released by combustion and its properties were not fully understood
(C) phlogiston was an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood and which many scientists had believed was released by combustion
(D) phlogiston, an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood, was believed by scientists to be released by combustion
(E) many scientists had believed that phlogiston was released by combustion and was an imaginary substance whose properties were not fully understood

“Until Antoine Lavoisier proved otherwise in the eighteenth century, many scientists had believed that combustion released phlogiston”- this 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, Construction, and Tenses. 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: A

Explanation: The following concepts are tested here:

1. Tenses
2. Parallelism
3. Construction

Option A: Correct
This option is correct because this sentence is grammatically correct. It uses past perfect tense “had+verb” to refer to the earlier of the past two events. The second part of the two events has used the simple past tense “proved”, which conveys the intended meaning of the sentence. So, Option A is correct.

Option B: Incorrect
This option is incorrect. The use of simple past “believed” is incorrect because the earlier of the past two events must be in the past perfect tense. Also, the construction “and its properties were not fully understood” and “phlogiston was released by combustion” fail to maintain parallelism. So, Option B is incorrect.

Option C: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because the use of “phlogiston” immediately after the opening clause wrongly indicates that phlogiston had been imaginary until Lavoisier proved it. Also, the sentence unnecessarily uses a passive voice which makes it awkward. So, Option C is incorrect.

Option D: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because of the use of “was believed”. As earlier mentioned, the earlier part of the two past tense must be in the past perfect tense “had been believed”. Also, it awkwardly uses the passive voice. So, Option D is incorrect.

Option E: Incorrect
This option is incorrect because it wrongly implies that scientists had believed that phlogiston was imaginary, which is not true. Since the option alters the meaning of the above sentence. So, Option E is incorrect.

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