SC- building and loan associations

[zoe]

Dear instructors,
Please help to clarify my fault.


The original building and loan associations were organized as limited life funds, whose members made monthly payments on their share subscriptions, then taking turns drawing on the funds for home mortgages.
(A) subscriptions, then taking turns drawing
(B) subscriptions, and then taking turns drawing
(C) subscriptions and then took turns drawing
(D) subscriptions and then took turns, they drew
(E) subscriptions and then drew, taking turns

IMO, made and drew are parallelism, and "taking turns" is modifier of drew.

thanks a lot

have a nice day
>_~

[MartyMurray]

Hi Zoe.

What you are describing could work. However the only answer choice that includes drew and taking turns is E, and in E the funds for home mortgages seems to be the object not of drew but of taking turns.

Look at the entire sentence created using E.

The original building and loan associations were organized as limited life funds, whose members made monthly payments on their share subscriptions and then drew, taking turns on the funds for home mortgages.

See? It conveys that they made monthly payments and then drew, taking turns on the funds.

I guess it would work better if taking turns were before drew.

The original building and loan associations were organized as limited life funds, whose members made monthly payments on their share subscriptions and then, taking turns, drew on the funds for home mortgages.

Also, you really need two commas to set off taking turns and make clear that it is a modifier.

Still, the version created using C is maybe slightly better expressed, as what they really did was take turns drawing on the funds.

[zoe]

Hi Zoe.

What you are describing could work. However the only answer choice that includes drew and taking turns is E, and in E the funds for home mortgages seems to be the object not of drew but of taking turns.

Look at the entire sentence created using E.

The original building and loan associations were organized as limited life funds, whose members made monthly payments on their share subscriptions and then drew, taking turns on the funds for home mortgages.

See? It conveys that they made monthly payments and then drew, taking turns on the funds.

I guess it would work better if taking turns were before drew.

The original building and loan associations were organized as limited life funds, whose members made monthly payments on their share subscriptions and then, taking turns, drew on the funds for home mortgages.

Also, you really need two commas to set off taking turns and make clear that it is a modifier.

Still, the version created using C is maybe slightly better expressed, as what they really did was take turns drawing on the funds.

Hi Marty,
thanks so much for quick reply.

I think I get your idea.
I have no idea how to keep clam down when taking test...
so hard...
first, my level is poor, this is the main reason caused nervous..

[MartyMurray]

I have no idea how to keep clam down when taking test...
so hard...
first, my level is poor, this is the main reason caused nervous..

One thing that can help a lot is taking practice tests. The more you take, the more you get accustomed to taking the test and the easier staying calm is. Any half decent practice test will do for this purpose.

Of course if your test is coming up soon, I guess you don't have time for many more practice tests, but you could at least take a quant or verbal section maybe, anything to get yourself used to the test experience.

One way to stay calm when actually taking the test is to just focus on getting the answer to each question you see. If you get the answer you get it, and if you don't you don't. Then move onto the next question and don't worry about anything other than getting the answer to that one, and keep reminding yourself that worrying about your score or about your answers is not going to help. The only thing that matters is doing your best to get the right answer to the question at hand.

[DavidG@VeritasPrep]

I have no idea how to keep clam down when taking test...

In addition to the additional practice tests, you might want to consider mindfulness meditation: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... on/275564/

Or these techniques https://creatingpositivefutures.com/3-re ... t-anxiety/

[[email protected]]

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, and narrow down the options to the correct choice! To start, here is the original question with any major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

The original building and loan associations were organized as limited life funds, whose members made monthly payments on their share subscriptions, then taking turns drawing on the funds for home mortgages.

(A) subscriptions, then taking turns drawing
(B) subscriptions, and then taking turns drawing
(C) subscriptions and then took turns drawing
(D) subscriptions and then took turns, they drew
(E) subscriptions and then drew, taking turns

After a quick glance over the options, there are a couple things we can focus on:

1. took vs. taking (parallelism)
2. drew vs. drawing (meaning)

Let's start with #1 on our list, which mainly deals with parallelism. If we look at the entire sentence carefully, we can find clues as to what we need to make sure is parallel:

The original building and loan associations were organized as limited life funds, whose members made monthly payments on their share subscriptions, then taking turns drawing on the funds for home mortgages.

These two actions MUST be written using parallel structure! Let's see which options do this correctly, and then rule out those that don't:

(A) subscriptions, then taking turns drawing
(B) subscriptions, and then taking turns drawing
(C) subscriptions and then took turns drawing
(D) subscriptions and then took turns, they drew
(E) subscriptions and then drew, taking turns

We can eliminate options A, B, & E because they don't use parallel structure for the two actions (made/took) members do in the sentence.

Now that we have things narrowed down, let's tackle #2 on our list. To make things easier to see, we'll add in the entire sentence for you. We need to make sure the sentences are clear, concise, and make logical sense:

(C) The original building and loan associations were organized as limited life funds, whose members made monthly payments on their share subscriptions and then took turns drawing on the funds for home mortgages.

This is CORRECT! It uses parallel structure for the members' actions (made/took), and there aren't any issues with meaning or punctuation.

(D) The original building and loan associations were organized as limited life funds, whose members made monthly payments on their share subscriptions and then took turns, they drew on the funds for home mortgages.

This is INCORRECT for a couple reasons. First, if you place commas before and after a phrase that beings with "which," it becomes a modifier. Since modifiers are non-essential clauses, we should be able to remove it without screwing up the meaning of the sentence. If we remove the phrase, here is what we're left with:

The original building and loan associations were organized as limited life funds they drew on the funds for home mortgages.

That doesn't really make sense, does it? If removing a phrase that contains commas on both sides leads to an incomplete or confusing sentence, there is likely a problem with a misplaced modifier or poor punctuation - or both!

The other problem we have is a bit of distorted meaning. By putting a comma after the phrase "they took turns," it's now unclear what they were taking turns doing! We're not sure if they took turns drawing on funds for home mortgages, or they took turns doing something else AND THEN they all drew on funds for mortgages at the same time. This lack of clarity is a major no-no on the GMAT, so let's rule out this option.


There you have it - option C is the correct choice! It uses parallel structure and has a clear, concise meaning.


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.