While being a teenager, Elmer Bernstein met the famous composer Aaron Copland, who encouraged Bernstein to continue his study of music.
ANSWER SELECTION
(A) While being a teenager
(B) While in his teenage years
(C) At the time of his being a teenager
(D) As being a teenager
(E) As a teenager (THIS IS CORRECT!)
ANSWER EXPLANATION
The sentence as written uses the awkward construction “While being a teenager” in the opening modifying phrase, so (A) can be eliminated. Since the underlined portion and the answer choices are so short, a vertical scan quickly reveals that (C) and (D) also use “being,” so they too can be eliminated.
While (B) has no definite errors, check (E) to be sure. (E) conveys the idea more efficiently without any other errors; therefore, (E) is correct.
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