语法问题， 求帮助！

purpletea1

.1。 Darwin was not the first to advance a theory of evolution; his tremendous originality lay in the fact that he proposed the idea of natural selection as the means by which evolution worked.
(A) lay in the fact that he proposed the idea
(B) lay in the fact of his proposing the idea
(C) laid in the fact of his proposing the idea
(D) laid in his proposal（E）
(E) lay in his proposal

2。. A discussion of our nation’s foreign policy must begin with the fact of there being an independent Western Europe which now thinks of itself in trans-nationalist terms.
(A) A discussion of our nation’s foreign policy must begin with the fact of there being
(B) Beginning any discussion of our nation’s foreign policy must be the fact of there being
(C) Any discussion of our nation’s foreign policy must begin with the fact that there is
(D) Any discussion of our nation’s foreign policy must begin by acknowledging the existence of（D）
(E) To begin discussing our nation’s foreign policy thee must be an acknowledgment of the fact that

大家能帮我讲一下第一道题为什么不选A啊？因为不简洁吗?
还有第二题为什么C不对啊？谢谢！

bilkentFBA

lay是把“放”某物于某处，lay a piece of cloth on the table
laid是某物“位于”“位于”某处，就像这句话里的原创性“在于”提出了自然选择blah blah。

gmat里用there be蛮少的，另外d选项在意思上更通，“任何讨论都要首先承认xxx”，xxx是前提，类似于cr里的assumption。begin with，从什么开始，he began his speech by telling a joke，他的演讲从讲笑话开始，套到这个句子就是任何讨论都要从xx事实开始，xxx就成了讨论的一部分，显然不通。

purpletea1

bilkentFBA 发表于 2014-8-13 07:14
lay是把“放”某物于某处，lay a piece of cloth on the table
laid是某物“位于”“位于”某处，就像这句 ...

非常感谢！

Linna1998Gmat

第一题为什么用现在式啊，D为什么不对呀