Sat Writing Question!

Test Preparation
1
  1. (Although only) two inches long, the shrew is a mammal and therefore a relative of elephants and giraffes. A. Although only D. While its size is

I chose D because I thought the first part of the sentence should have verb in it, but the answer was A.
And I understood D was wrong after checking my answer because size is “2 inches” but not “2 inches long”.

But I encountered this question
  1. (The delegates coming this far, they) did not want to return without accomplishing something. A. Coming this far, the delegates felt they B. Having come this far, the delegates

The answer was B for this problem.

The only difference I noticed was that the first question has transition word and the second one doesn’t.
So I came up with this question/

  Is only time we should make it verb is when it doesn't have transition word?
2
  1. Can't be (D) because it's redundant to say a "size"is "two inches long." The shrew itself, not its size, is two inches long.
  2. (A) is wrong because "Coming this far" is a present participle and thus indicates that the two actions ("coming" and "[wanting] to return") are simultaneous. "Having come this far" is correct because the past participle indicates that the action of "coming this far" preceded the action of "[wanting] to return."

Correct: Walking home, I saw a flasher. (the two actions are simultaneous)
Correct: Having seen a flasher, I took a different route next time. (the first action precedes the second)
Incorrect: Eating dinner, I was too full to have another bite. (the second action, logically, must follow the first, but the sentence’s grammar indicates simultaneity)

@monaka

3

“Having been” makes it older than the present tense one? Ok. I got it!

But why “having been” is used in this sentence?

  1. Far from having been a diehard conservative, Hoover was, some scholars now contend, the leading progressive of his day.
4

Um, because “having been” isn’t underlined in that sentence and the original error (“Far away from…”) is obvious and unequivocally wrong?

5

I understand that… I just wanted to know when we use ”having been". I thought it will be better if we use “being” instead of “having been”.

6

I make it a policy not to attend to grammar in (A) portions of questions that can’t be changed and (B) the reading section. It’s a policy that has served me well.

7

Ha ha. I have no such policy, so I shall offer an opinion and @marvin100 can disagree if s/he so chooses. Using “being” [present tense] might have confused some folks into thinking there was a problem with the “Hoover was” That’s all I got. Other than that, I see no problem with either phrasing.

8

Being would not be better. It would be present tense if it replaced having been. Hoover is dead so he is currently neither a conservative or progressive - a form of past tense is required.

As a general rule, whenever being is underlined, assume it is wrong. There will be exceptions in less than 1 out of a 100 cases on the SAT. Unless you’re a 700+ scorer, this is a simple trick that can really pay dividends.

9

Thank you guys I think I got it!