Dr. Sayre’s lecture recounted several

netigen

Dr. Sayre’s lecture recounted several little-known episodes in the relations between nations that illustrates what is wrong with alliances and treaties that do not have popular support.

(A) relations between nations that illustrates
(B) relation of one nation with another that illustrates
(C) relations between nations that illustrate
(D) relation of one nation with another and illustrate
(E) relations of nations that illustrates

hillzheng · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 12:35 am Post subject:

No one replies? Which one is correct?

netigen · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 12:43 am Post subject:

OA is B

saurabhvn · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 2:02 am Post subject:

Correct option is E

opt out A for the reason that it requires correct idiom BETWEEN A AND B
subject verb agreement error

The relations is plural subject so verb illustrate must be plural i.e. illustrates.

rdadbhawala · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 2:44 am Post subject: Option C

The verb "illustrate" is with the noun "episodes". Hence, the correct form of the verb has to be "illustrate" which means only two options: C or D.

Option D introduces the word "and" which changes the meaning of the sentence.

Thus option C is the right answer.

The word "between" can also be used in other phrases than the idiom "between ... and". Eg: The Championship is between the local teams. There's no "and" here, but is a correct sentence.

saurabhvn · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 2:50 am Post subject:

Oops !! correct option is A ...mistakenly wrote option E correct in previous post.

C cant be the right answer,for clarification just put a brace after relations( between nations) that illustrate .....make sense..NO...relations require plural verb which is illustrates..so correct answer is A...correct subject verb agreement and correct idiom.

rdadbhawala

He requires ... They require
He demands ... They demand
Episodes of relations that [b]illustrate[/b] ... not illustrates.

Still stick to Option C.

saurabhvn · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 3:38 am Post subject:

Consent....illustrate is plural ..C is correct.

chidcguy · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:39 am Post subject:

Good Q. Picked E originally but looks like B is correct

Dr Sayre's lecture is singular needs singular verb illustrates

C & D are out.

To use between we need X and Y Thats why A is wrong

relations of nations is also wrong because relations among nations is preferable when we have more than 2.

Left out is B and it avoids both these errors.

OP any explanation?

netigen · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 12:07 pm Post subject:

I think one aspect that is tested here is what is "that" modifying. If we look into this we may be able to triangulate the right answer.

A is wrong because that seems to refer to nations. Nations are not illustrating anything here. Only the relationships or the lecture can
B is right because that refers to relations which can illustrate
C is wrong because that seems to refer to nations. Nations are not illustrating anything here. Only the relationships or the lecture can
D is wrong because illustrate refers to lecture and hence should be plural form
E is wrong because that seems to refer to nations. Nations are not illustrating anything here. Only the relationships or the lecture can

s_raizada · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 1:40 am Post subject:

Netigen,
A,C,E are wrong because of modification error. 'That' is referring to nations

D is illogical

B also has modification error because antecedent of 'that' is 'another', which refers to a nation

The way i see it is
A - subject verb agreement . 'nations that illustrate'. Another problem is idiom between nations .....and treaties. nations and treaties are parallel but that is illogical
C - parrallelism as mentioned in A
E - subject verb agreement as mentioned in A
D - is illogical
B - even though it is not very convincing but it is lesser of the evils

sanjaylakhani

Hi,

Can any expert comment on this, as we are getting different views

timepass · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 8:47 am Post subject:

Well let me try it out..

(B) relation of one nation with another that illustrates

first of all, we can straight away remove options with BETWEEN...not becuase they don't have correct idiom ...I can bet you there are enough sentences with out the structure Relations Betn X and Y..okey..

But the reason here is.....we have to use the verb Illustrate to modify the relation.

Now in this kind of structure we can use one rule...<we>..
so we need OF.....now youc an easily find out that it has to be B

lunarpower · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:51 pm Post subject:

the answer is (c).

first of all, the subject of "illustrate" is "episodes". ("in the relations between nations" - as well as the various transmogrifications of that phrase in the other answer choices - is a prepositional phrase, and as such can be ignored in the search for SV agreement, since the verb lies outside the prepositional phrase.)
this means that you need the plural verb "illustrate", so we're already down to (c) and (d).

(d) is wrong for two reasons:
* "relation of one nation with another" is just ugly and unidiomatic
* "and illustrate" creates two problems.
- first, it falsely suggests that the presentation of episodes and the illustration of faults in treaties are 2 completely separate phenomena - a notion that's mistaken not only by pure common sense, but also because it contravenes the meaning inherent in the original sentence.
- second, if you create this compound verb with "and", then the subject of both parts becomes "lecture". in that case, there's SV diagreement, because "lecture" is singular.

as for the so-called official answer (b), that's at least two different colors of wrong. first, "relation of one nation with another" is not proper idiomatic english. second, there's the SV disagreement, as mentioned above.

--

to recap:
there is absolutely, positively no way that the official answer to this question is (b).
(c) is the best answer by a country mile.

two things:
1) while this is still a good practice problem - it tests SV agreement, idiom, and clarity - it definitely sets off my "non-official radar". it's rare not only for real gmat problems to contain long, unbroken, difficult-to-follow sentences with NO internal punctuation, but also for them to contain relatively wordy / informal constructions (e.g. "what is wrong with" vs. the much more formal and concise "(the) problems with").

2) if this problem is taken from a source that indicates (b) as the correct answer, run, don't walk, away from that source. run for your life.
if you can set fire to it while simultaneously running for your life, all the better.

kiranlegend