Idiom issue ? : "was a French government in 1871"

[Aquamarine]

Is the underlined part incorrect because of an idiom issue or are there other grammatical errors ?

The Paris Commune, hailed by many as an assumption of power by the working class, was a French government in 1871 that ruled for less than two months.

Thanks
Ishita

[vivs.gupta]

Is the underlined part incorrect because of an idiom issue or are there other grammatical errors ?

The Paris Commune, hailed by many as an assumption of power by the working class, was a French government in 1871 that ruled for less than two months.

Thanks
Ishita

What error do you observe in this sentence? it looks fine to me.

[Aquamarine]

In the Foundation of GMAT verbal book, page 128, Question 8, the solution declares this as a wrong answer. The explanation as to why this is wrong is not very clear to me.

Thanks
Ishita

[RonPurewal]

well, i don't have the foundations of verbal book in front of me at the moment, so i don't know what's in that explanation. but here are a couple of things:

* the modifier "in 1871" is in the wrong place.
where it's located right now, this modifier seems to describe "...was a french government". that's not really a sensible place for this modifier, because the fact that "xxxx was a french government" isn't limited to that timeframe.
this modifier would make more sense if it were placed after "for two months" -- for two months in 1871.

* the sentence doesn't really agree with itself in terms of meaning.
the first description of the french commune says that it was "hailed as an assumption of power" -- suggesting that it was an action (i.e., the actual "assumption", or seizure, of power by someone).
the following description, however, says that it was actually a government.
this doesn't make sense -- something can't be an act/event (like "assumption of power") and also a government at the same time.

--

don't forget:
on the test, you don't have to make absolute decisions about "right" or "wrong". all you have to do is compare answer choices relative to each other.

so, the point is that you won't have to think of these things all by yourself. if you were given one answer choice with "in 1871" where it is now, and another choice with "in 1871" after "for two months", it would be a lot easier to see that the latter is better.

[Aquamarine]

Thanks a lot Ron.

Ishita

[tim]

:)