Beat The GMAT

xeqtr · Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:58 am

In 1527 King Henry VIII sought to have his marriage to Queen Catherine annulled so as to marry Anne Boleyn.

A ...
B and so could be married to
C to be married to
D so that he could marry
E in order that he would marry

QA:D

So what is wrong with A? I think it sounds quite rite, since as to means in order to. one may say it is not clear who marry who, but I thin subject King Henry is clearly reffered to marry Anne Boleyn section. I though for a sec for the correct answer as well but thought A is clearer and shorter and went for it since I dont think there's a hard evidence for it to be wrong. Thnx in advance for your assistance!

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camitava · Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:30 am

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camitava · Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:05 pm

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xeqtr · Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:45 pm

Hi, thx for the explanation.
However if you take out "to Queen Catherine " and have a look at the sentence:

In 1527 King Henry VIII sought to have his marriage annulled so as to marry Anne Boleyn.

So King is trying to bring his marriage to an end in order to marry Anne Boleyn, seems parallel doesnt it? sorry if I could not get your point Crying or Very sad

edit:
Do you just look the parallelism between "sought to have his marriage to Queent Catherina and to marry Anne Boleyn" ??

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boston_mba · Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:37 pm

I see your point xeqtr and I agree with you.

Here's a general question - have you guys noticed such questions (where the answers are based on very subtle nuances) in the OG? Is the Manhattan SC a particularly difficult (and maybe even misleading) reference?

I am curious because I've been working through the OG (about 30% done with it) and there isn't too much ambiguity about the right answer to a question.

Just wondering - it is VERY VERY possible that I am justifying my lack of grammar knowledge with this thinking Smile

. But honestly, I don't do that badly on the OG but do very poorly in the SC's posted in this forum. Not good for the confidence.

What are people's thoughts?

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xeqtr · Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:57 pm

hi boston, thanks for your opinion, indeed this is a OG 10 question, however in answer explanation it does not tell why A is wrong and when this is the case it has no use for me in understanding the real reason behind it. Either my grammar is not advanced enough or GMAT has its own way (I mean seriously different than general English grammar rules) in interpreting the questions and stating the errors! I do quite well on RC and CR but SC is really a hassle and I am not really confident how to improve it in a short time! Manhattan SC is simply not enough to solve this kind of questions I have to regret.

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boston_mba · Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:04 pm

OG question - well, this is really helping my confidence Smile

Well, if it's any comfort, here's someone else who chose A as well -

http://chrisworth.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

And according to him, D is right because:

"I chose A, but this one's borderline: strict grammar is the answer, not everyday usage. The sentence raises a conditional, which is only answered by making the second half dependent on the first half, which means D."

I don't get it completely but it makes a little sense. However, I am not confident I'd correctly answer a similar question in the future and that's the bad news.

Any Residential GMAT gurus have ideas on this question please?

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boston_mba · Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:29 pm

Aha!!! Found it!

http://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentence-correction/2068-so-so-such.html

Good explanation there!

Good luck guys!

Why can't GMAT test my google skills? I can google any SC they need me to Smile

. Wait - google's not a verb now is it? It's an adverbial prepositional phrase but cannot be used as an absolute clause because it's not parallel with me and needs a misplaced modifier in past perfect to work!!!!!

AHHHHH! When when when ..?

Smile

I am ok.

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resilient · Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:33 pm

Just wanted to chime on on a great conversation. Does the idiom (So X as to Y) have any weight here.

I dont like answer A because it doesn't explain WHO. There is no X in idiom and only a Y (y=marry).

Correct me if I am wrong.

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boston_mba · Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:09 am

Engin - I see what you are saying. Can you give an example of the idiom you are referring to?

The thing is, "so as to" seems to be a valid construction -
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/so+as+to

However, I have heard of the following idiom (which is very close to the one you are referring to). Any chance you are referring to this one? If yes, then I think you need the extra "be".

so [adj] as to be [adj]?

For example,

so transparent that it is invisible (correct)
so transparent as to be invisible (correct)

so transparent so as to be invisible (incorrect)
transparent enough so as to be invisible (incorrect)
transparent enough that it is invisible (incorrect)

I hope I am making sense.

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resilient · Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:32 pm

Boston_mba,

you are making great sense. I made the point of bringing up the idiom issue because I usually lose to an other wise correct answer choice. Practicing through the OG book, I noticed that if I ignore an idiom, I almost always get it wrong. THerefore, I am sticking to the IDIOM so x as to y. Your point is right too. SO now I am a bit confused on which one beats the other.