Sentence Correction

abhishek07sep wrote:

pallav.gmat wrote:

abhishek07sep wrote:

pallav.gmat wrote:Both C and E seem correct. However, I will select E over C basis wordiness.
'its paying' makes the option more wordy than option E.

but what about E being a run-on sentene?

I dont think it to be a run-on , can you explain the context behind the thought?

i like apples , and oranges..
the above sentence is wrong , i guess
the correct sentence should be-
i like apples and oranges..

for the exact same reason i think that e is a run on

the phrase "falling..." modifies the phrase prior to it ( "but then...). "falling..." is modifying the idea of the phrase "but then...". In general , "verb+ing" can modify the idea of the phrase/clause prior to it.
eg - Ram ran at a speed of 30 m/s in the race, beating Rohan by 3 seconds.

C is wrong because "its " in the structure "its paying" is redundant.
DOING is used to emphizise that the subject cause the action of DOING. "the company" cause "paying" and "its" is not need.

we use NOUN to show a general action. So, if we replace "its payment" in C, this is also correct. "Payment" is general and requires "its" to make clear who cause "payment"

From above thinking, normally we use NOUN, not DOING because normally general action needs to be shown.

the following from gmatprep, explained in Ron's video, shows what I have just said.

Thirteen states from all regions of the country announced a plan to impose new controls on pollution from truck and bus engines in that they will jointly adopt eission limits that would be far stricter than the federal rules.
A to impose new controls on pollution from truck and bus engines in that they will jointly adopt
B to impose new controls on truck and bus engines' pollution by the joint adoption of
C to impose new controls on pollution from truck and bus engines, and jointly adopting
D for imposing new ontrols on pollusion from truck and bus engines, and jointly adopting
E for imposing new controls on truck and bus engine pollution in the joint adoption of
oa is D.


it take me a few hours just to understand 2 these sentences. pls, comment/confirm.

kvcpk wrote:After several years of rapid growth, the health care company became one of the largest health care providers in the metropolitan area, while it then proved unable to handle the increase in business, falling months behind in its payment to doctors and hospitals.
A. while it then proved unable to handle the increase in business, falling months
behind in its payment to
B. while it then proved unable to handle the increase in business and fell months
behind in its payment to
C. but then it proved unable to handle the increase in business, falling months behind
in its paying
D. but then proving unable to handle the increase in business, falling months behind
in paying
E. but then proved unable to handle the increase in business, falling months behind
in paying

Source: GMATPREP

Please provide detailed explanations.

I got a pm asking me to provide a detailed explanation regarding this question. I will only focus on C and E, because most of you have already eliminated A,B correctly because "while" does not show the contrast required by the question. Also, you did eliminate D because of the incorrect usage of "verb+ing form in "then proving unable....". So let's focus on C and E.

E is the correct answer here. It is the official answer for good reason. It corrects two problems with C which disqualify that option. Let's take a look at those problems.

Let's look at the full sentence with C fit in:-

After several years of rapid growth, the health care company became one of the largest health care providers in the metropolitan area, but then it proved unable to handle the increase in business, falling months behind in its paying doctors and hospitals.

There are two problems here:

A. First, "it" has an ambiguous referent. Here, "it" may very well refer "metropolitan area", thereby modifying the intended meaning.

B. Second, "its paying" is not concise. It is borderline redundant. Typically, in my opinion, GMAT would throw such a sentence in the "awkward" category in a heartbeat.

The very two reasons above also lead us to select E as the correct answer because:
a. the sentence gets rid of the ambiguous antecedent.
b. the sentence uses a more concise expression.

Now if you are not entirely convinced of the first and primary reason for rejecting C, bear with me. Here are a few examples that might persuade you in a different direction.

The shop is in the city, but it is very dirty.
The duck had a child, but it was very weak.

I am sure most of you will agree that in both the sentences above, we can't say for certain what is dirty and which animal is weak. Option C isn't any different than these examples above.

Now that we have correctly eliminated C and established E as the answer, I want to answer a specific query regarding the sentence possibly being a run-on. Here's the answer.
Even though C is incorrect, it is NOT a run-on.

We have two independent clauses.
"The health care....area" and
"It proved.......business"

They are correctly joined by a comma and a conjunction "but". The construction is correct. It is the ambiguity which kills any chances the sentence may have had.

Remember that it would be a run-on if there was no conjunction linking the two independent clauses, but we do have a conjunction in "but". So, if we had "The health care....area, then it..... business." as the sentence (where I have omitted the "but"), the sentence would indeed be a run-on.

I hope this clears your doubts!

Cheers!

E.

scorpionz wrote:IMO: E

What's the OA?

GMATGuruNY wrote:

Jai_itguys wrote:Thanks Guru but I have a doubt here-

The underlined part, I presume, is an independent clause which is joined to the main independent clause "the health care....metropolitan area". My doubt is that if we will not include the 'it' then the second independent clause will be missing a subject resulting in a fragment.

My second doubt is that you said that 'it' could refer back to 'the metropolitan area' but 'in the the metropolitan area' is a prepositional phase and time and again it has been reiterated on this very forum that it is very difficult for a pronoun to refer back to the object of preposition. Are there any exceptions to this? Under which case?

GMATGuruNY wrote:

kvcpk wrote:After several years of rapid growth, the health care company became one of the largest health care providers in the metropolitan area, while it then proved unable to handle the increase in business, falling months behind in its payment to doctors and hospitals.
A. while it then proved unable to handle the increase in business, falling months
behind in its payment to
B. while it then proved unable to handle the increase in business and fell months
behind in its payment to
C. but then it proved unable to handle the increase in business, falling months behind
in its paying
D. but then proving unable to handle the increase in business, falling months behind
in paying
E. but then proved unable to handle the increase in business, falling months behind
in paying

Source: GMATPREP

Please provide detailed explanations.

Eliminate A and B because while doesn't imply contrast.

Eliminate D because proving needs to be in the same tense as became.

Eliminate C because the pronoun it could be referring either to the health care company or to the metropolitan area, since either could have proved unable to handle the increase in business. If it's not crystal clear which noun is being replaced by a pronoun, eliminate the answer choice. So C is out.

The correct answer is E.

I received a PM asking me to discuss the comma before the conjunction but. The GMAT doesn't really test punctuation. Look for better reasons to eliminate answer choices.

You are correct that -- viewed from a grammatical perspective -- it should refer to the subject of the previous clause. However, a reader might legitimately wonder whether the intended meaning is for it to refer to the metropolitan area, since it's entirely plausible that the metropolitan area proved unable to handle the increase in business. This potential confusion makes E a better answer choice because omitting the pronoun it makes the meaning in E crystal clear:

...the health care company became one of the largest health care providers...but then proved unable to handle the increase in business...

The health care company is the subject both of became and of proved, so there is no sentence fragment error. (While traditional grammar holds that after a comma both a subject and a verb are required, modern grammar doesn't always adhere to this rule, and punctuation isn't really tested on the GMAT, so we shouldn't use this as a reason to eliminate E.)

Hope this helps.

Thank you for your explanation. I still have some quick questions. First, even though the subject is omitted after but, I think the verb proved should be the passive form was provedin choice E. Can you explain more about it? Second, paying and payment, which is better? So I choose C.
Thanks in advance!