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Jacob Riis

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by rahulg83 » Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:15 am
In the late 1880s, the journalist Jacob Riis visited tenement dwellings in several impoverished New York City neighborhoods to investigate housing conditions and photograph tenants' apartments, whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect.

A) whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

B) whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and their walls were often lacking windows and dilapidated due to age and neglect

C) whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and they had walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

D) having interiors inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving for beds, and their walls were often windowless and dilapidated due to age and neglect

E) having interiors that were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often lacked windows and were dilapidated on account of age and neglect
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A

by Bryant@VeritasPrep » Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:56 am
I believe the best answer is "A," which appears to be the only gramatically correct option. The last two can be discarded immediately, since the verb structure is inconsistent in each: D says "floors often serving" when describing the beds, yet says "walls were often windowless"--the "were" would need to be dropped to make the structure parallell. Similarly for E, you can't say "often serving" and then "often lacked," but would have to say "often serving" and then "often lacking." This leaves the options A, B and C which use "whose" as the possessive case of "which" (used as an adjective) to refer to the apartments. Of these, A is best, since both B and C fail to offset the latter phrase with a semi-colon, which is required when the phrase can stand alone as its own sentence ("their floors were often serving as beds...")...if this were set off with a semicolon, then B could also work. Since it doesn't, you're left with A, which has no gramatical errors (C is just a mess since it mixes pronouns). I think you will find that many of these GMAT sentence problems require you to choose a solution which is not ideal, but simply works technically and therefore rises above other options which are flawed gramatically. This is one reason the confounded verbal portion of the GMAT eats up so much time. You end up reading what eventually becomes the right answer, yet it doesn't sound very good at first, which forces you to read all the others and start comparing. Sometimes a good strategy is to scan each answer and quickly search for errors, which will eliminate that choice as a possiblity. If you have two gramatically viable options, choose the one that is cleaner, without passive voice or stylistic problems. Hope this helps.
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by rahulg83 » Wed Jun 24, 2009 5:09 am
Hi Braynt, Thanks for the wonderful explanation.
As u said, D is wrong because of were. If we drop were from the sentence, then would A still score over D? I am wondering whether use of having to describe the apartments is favorable. Also what about the due to part. I have the OE, in which main reason for kicking D out is mentioned as "Awkward usage of having" and "awkward usage of due to"..


In the late 1880s, the journalist Jacob Riis visited tenement dwellings in several impoverished New York City neighborhoods to investigate housing conditions and photograph tenants' apartments, having interiors inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving for beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated due to age and neglect.

Is this better than A?
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by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jun 24, 2009 5:55 am
rahulg83 wrote:Hi Braynt, Thanks for the wonderful explanation.
As u said, D is wrong because of were. If we drop were from the sentence, then would A still score over D? I am wondering whether use of having to describe the apartments is favorable. Also what about the due to part. I have the OE, in which main reason for kicking D out is mentioned as "Awkward usage of having" and "awkward usage of due to"..


In the late 1880s, the journalist Jacob Riis visited tenement dwellings in several impoverished New York City neighborhoods to investigate housing conditions and photograph tenants' apartments, having interiors inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving for beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated due to age and neglect.

Is this better than A?
IMO We cannot replace due to by caused by here...so still D would have been wrong....
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Re: Jacob Riis

by goelmohit2002 » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:00 am
rahulg83 wrote:In the late 1880s, the journalist Jacob Riis visited tenement dwellings in several impoverished New York City neighborhoods to investigate housing conditions and photograph tenants' apartments, whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect.

A) whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

B) whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and their walls were often lacking windows and dilapidated due to age and neglect

C) whose interiors were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors were often serving as beds, and they had walls often windowless and dilapidated with age and neglect

D) having interiors inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving for beds, and their walls were often windowless and dilapidated due to age and neglect

E) having interiors that were inhumanely overcrowded, their floors often serving as beds, and their walls often lacked windows and were dilapidated on account of age and neglect
I am really confused with "A"...here "and dilapidated with age and neglect" is IMO parallel with overcrowded...so shouldn't it be a part of middlemen clause i.e. whose....

Can someone please tell "having" is modifying "dwellings"....or "Apartments"?
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by Domnu » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:49 am
"Due to" is used over "because" when "due to" modifies a noun. "Because" is used when modifying a verb.

Example:

The dilapidation of the house on Mango Street is due to the fact that Sandra Cisneros moved to a different state.

The house on Mango Street began to dilapidate because Sandra Cisneros moved to a different state.
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by goelmohit2002 » Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:22 am
Can someone please tell:

1. IMO in "A"..."and dilapidated with age and neglect" is parallel to overcrowded...so shouldn't it be a part of middlemen clause i.e. whose....or it is ok to place the same separately.

2. Can someone please tell in the above sentence "having" is modifying "dwellings"....or "Apartments"?
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