1000SC #197

[gter]

197. Camus broke with Sartre in a bitter dispute over the nature of Stalinism.
(A) in a bitter dispute over
(B) over bitterly disputing
(C) after there was a bitter dispute over
(D) after having bitterly disputed about
(E) over a bitter dispute about

Can someone please explain why the answer is A instead of E? Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

Make sure that you appreciate the difference in meaning between the two sentences. If you say that C broke with S in a bitter dispute, you are saying that, during the course of the dispute, the 'break' occurred. If you say they broke over a bitter dispute, you are actually saying that they didn't break during the dispute itself, but rather that the dispute was the catalyst of their later (although probably not too much later) 'break'.

Given all this, only the first makes sense: C and S are not quarreling lovers who 'broke up' over their little dispute (as is suggested by choice E). Rather, they 'broke' ideologically from each other in the bitter dispute, but we don't know anything about how, or indeed if, the 'bitter dispute' affected their personal relationship.

[gter]

Thanks Ron. great explanation (as always)

[umang.gmat]

I too opted for A, but am unable to convince myself, why is choice C incorrect, apart from the fact, that it's lengthy.

Please help.

[tim]

C says "there was a bitter dispute", but it doesn't give us any indication of the connection between the dispute and the break. for all we know, those could have nothing to do with each other, and the dispute could have involved totally different people..