Gmatprep sc

[atomy1985]

The thirteen original British colonies in North America, some formed as commercial ventures, others as religious havens, each had a written charter that set forth its form of government and the rights of the colonists.
A. some formed as commercial ventures, others as religious havens, each had a written charter
B. some being formed as a commercial venture, others as religious havens, all of which had written charters
C. some that formed as commercial ventures, others as religious havens, all had written charters
D. with some being formed as a commercial venture, others as religious havens, all had a written charter
E. with some formed as commercial ventures, while others as religious havens, each had a written charter

here, i selected the correct option that is A but please tell me whether in A "set forth" is correct? what is it for? is something such as "sets forth" exists for the singular noun? what does "its" indicate ?does "its" refer to "The thirteen original British colonies " ?

[mangipudi]

'Its' is singular and cannot refer to "The thirteen original British colonies "
its refers to each
each colony or each of the colonies had a written charter that set forth its form of government and the rights of the colonists.

[selva.e]

set forth - as a whole is a verb meaning 'state'

Also it is third-person singular simple present.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/set_forth

[NIKESH_PAHUJA]

Can someone please explain how to eliminate E ?

[RonPurewal]

E. with some formed as commercial ventures, while others as religious havens, each had a written charter

"with" is wrong, since the colonies weren't "with" anything. i.e., they didn't have anything in their possession, and there were no sub-colonies or smaller units that they were "with".

also, "while others as X" is wrong.
there are the ways in which you can use "while":
(1) with an entire clause (while i studied, my friends were out partying)
(2) with an adjective (while technically correct, your explanation is wrongheaded and misses the point)
(3) with an -ing participle (while skateboarding on the lakewalk, jim fell and broke his hand)

note that the latter two don't have subjects.

if you're going to tag "while" onto something with a subject (as you're attempting to do here, with "others" as the subject), you need to have the entire clause.