GMAT Verbal Practice | SC #10

This GMAT verbal question is a sentence correction practice question testing your understanding of word usage and prepositions. It is a medium difficulty, GMAT 650 level SC sample question.

Question 10: NASA reports that ancient observers took note of solar eclipses at least as far back as 2500 BC, as evidenced by surviving records from ancient Babylon and China.

1. as evidenced by surviving records from
2. as the evidence that has survived from the records of
3. as shows the evidence of records surviving in
4. as the surviving records show the evidence of
5. as evidenced by records that have survived in

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Video Explanation

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Explanatory Answer

Step 1 of solving this GMAT Sentence Correction Question: Identify What Is Tested

Look for differences across the answer options to identify what is being tested in the sentence.

• Different options use different constructions for “evidence” and “records”.

• Also, the placement of these constructions varies across the options.

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Step 2 of solving this GMAT Sentence Correction Question: Understanding the Sentence

• The sentence is referencing ancient records as proof to show that the ancients were aware of and taking note of solar eclipses.

• The intent of the sentence is to not provide evidence of the ancient civilizations but of ancient observers noticing and recording the occurrence of eclipses.

• “Surviving in” would imply that we are talking about an area or civilization currently in existence.

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Step 3: Process of Elimination

• Option (B) can be eliminated because the underlined part, when fit into the rest of the sentence, is disjoint and does not make any coherent sense. There is no verb for the word “evidence”.

• The sentence is discussing records of “ancient” Babylon and China. The preposition “in” has been used in options (C) and (E) and is incorrect. It means that the records are now in ancient Babylon, which is anachronistic.

• “evidence of” in option (D) implies that we are showing evidence proving the existence of ancient Babylon and China.

• “as evidenced” means “as shown” and the usage in option (A) conveys the right meaning.

Choice A is the correct answer.