Confusion: The driver took the people who had been waiting

[AZ679]

As Ron and I always say, you should never try to write your own "correct" versions of SC sentences (despite the irony that these are called "sentence correction" questions), because (A) your sentence will often contain other mistakes the GMAT didn't even intend to test, and (B) the test doesn't require you to do this in the first place, so it's overkill. Don't do more work to solve these than you have to!

That said, your example is exactly how I would have written this sentence. Word for word.

Thanks Tim,

Actually I wanted to make a comparison between the book's suggested corrected option for this sentence and my own version.
The book suggests the following sentence:

The people who had been waiting were taken for a ride by the driver.

I was wondering why the book uses the passive voice, which is generally not a GMAT's favorite, whether the sentence can be corrected retaining the active voice, and, if so, why the book suggests the passive voice construction rather than the simple rearrangement of words in the original sentence, i.e.:

The driver took for a ride the people who had been waiting

[tim]

Do not EVER ask why something is right on SC!!! If YOU can't find a mistake, leave it alone and let it be right. It's far less dangerous to make this type of error on SC (failing to see a mistake that's there) than the other way around ("seeing" a mistake that isn't there).

There are literally thousands of correct ways you could write a correct sentence, and just because you come up with a correct way doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the way the GMAT comes up with. This is one of the biggest traps the GMAT expects you to fall into, and the reason why you should NEVER try to come up with your own "correction" to a sentence.

You should also never "compare" two correct versions of a sentence to each other. If they are both correct, one is not "better" than the other, and the GMAT will never force you to make this distinction anyway. Yet another reason why it's a waste of time to try making your own corrections.

And passive voice is NOT AN ISSUE on the GMAT. There is NOTHING wrong with passive voice, so if you pretend there is, you run a risk of eliminating the correct answer because you are using a bogus "rule" that isn't really a rule.

[EkaterinaJensen]

Hello all, I'm little bit confused here.
There is a slight possibility that I'm blind , but I can't see "For the ride" part.
My 6th Edition of SC book on the page 35 says the following:
The driver picked up the people at the airport who had been waiting. - So, okay, this one is wrong, I agree. A is out.
The driver picked up the people who had been waiting at the airport. - This answer seems right to me.
Solution on page 37 says right answer is C and talks about "take for the ride" ambiguity, though it is not presented in the main sentence.

Can you please clarify which answer is correct? And why? (since the solution have not been modified to match the sentence)

Thank you ,
Ekaterina.

[RonPurewal]

^^ in this context it's clear that "at the airport" is where the people were WAITING.

thus, for this sentence to make any sense, "at the airport" has to follow "waiting".