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means to Vs means of

by selfmade » Sat Aug 07, 2010 2:36 pm

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More and more in recent years, cities are stressing the arts as a means to greater economic development and investing millions of dollars in cultural activities, despite strained municipal budgets and fading federal support.
(A) to greater economic development and investing
(B) to greater development economically and investing
(C) of greater economic development and invest
(D) of greater development economically and invest
(E) for greater economic development and the investment of

I picked C .

Can someone help explain when to use means to vs means of. Is means to a correct idiom ?
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by indiantiger » Sat Aug 07, 2010 3:10 pm

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(A) to greater economic development and investing <correct>
(B) to greater development economically and investing
(C) of greater economic development and invest <invest is not parallel to stressing>
(D) of greater development economically and invest
(E) for greater economic development and the investment of <not parallel and awkward>

Try to read it like this:

cities are stressing the arts as a means to greater economic development
cities are investing millions of dollars in cultural activities.
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by e-GMAT » Sat Aug 07, 2010 6:26 pm

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'Means' is used in two idiomatically correct expressions as noted below. These expressions however have different meanings:

x {as a means of} y = x is a type of y
x {as a means to} y = x is a method to achieve y

For example:
Walking is a means of exercise.
Some people use walking as a means to stay fit.

We will now put this in the context of the sentence in question:

City is stressing arts as a means to greater economic development
The usage of expression as a means to is appropriate here since "arts" is a method to achieve "greater economic development.

Thus, whenever you have to make the decision between using "as a means to" or "as a means of" always check which of the two meanings will make sense:
"a type of" or "a method to achieve"

I hope this helps.

For e-GMAT users, this concept is explained in the concept file "Idioms - Functions-II".
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by selfmade » Sat Aug 07, 2010 6:50 pm

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Thanks e-GMAT. This really helps.
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by TOPGMAT » Wed Aug 25, 2010 11:04 am

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Need to undestand the concept clearly.
Suppose the sentence is as follows.
Some ppl are running as a means to stay fit and remaining healthy.
"Remaining" seems not correct here.
In similar lines, how can investing be right here ? whats wrong with invest?
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by Gurpinder » Wed Aug 25, 2010 12:15 pm

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TOPGMAT wrote:Need to undestand the concept clearly.
Suppose the sentence is as follows.
Some ppl are running as a means to stay fit and remaining healthy.
"Remaining" seems not correct here.
In similar lines, how can investing be right here ? whats wrong with invest?

Some ppl are running as a means to stay fit and remaining healthy. Incorrect!
It should be --> Some ppl run as a means to stay fit and to remain healthy.

In the sentence of this post, the correct term is investing.

Look: .....cities are stressing the arts as a means..... <-- the red is a progressive.

so it should parallel. therefore, investing!
"Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress."
- Alfred A. Montapert, Philosopher.
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by e-GMAT » Wed Aug 25, 2010 1:08 pm

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TOPGMAT wrote:Need to undestand the concept clearly.
Suppose the sentence is as follows.
Some ppl are running as a means to stay fit and remaining healthy.
"Remaining" seems not correct here.
In similar lines, how can investing be right here ? whats wrong with invest?
TOPGMAT,

As Gurpinder correctly pointed out in his response, there is a difference between the sentence in the post and your sentence.

As I always say, read the sentence carefully and understand its meaning. As you completely understand the meaning you will be able to determine what constitutes a list in each of these sentences.

"Cities are stressing the arts as a means to greater economic development and investing millions of dollars"
In this sentence the list is as follows:
Cities are
1: Stressing...
2: Investing...
Thus, to maintain parallelism you should use "investing".

"Some ppl are running as a means to stay fit and remaining healthy."
In this sentence the list is as follows:
As a means to
1: Stay fit
2: Remaining healthy.
Thus, to maintain parallelism you should use "remain healthy".

I hope this makes sense.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the above.

Regards,

Payal Tandon
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by TOPGMAT » Thu Aug 26, 2010 12:56 am

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Got it.
Thanks payal and gurpinder.
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by rohansharmaster » Sat May 07, 2011 11:24 pm

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Friends,
I have a doubt in this context of explanation.

Do we say :
Playing cricket is a Means of livelihood
or
Playing cricket is a Means to livelihood

I suppose ,this phrase has got to do more wit idiom rather than rules.
Thank you already fro helping me out.

Rohan
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by Target2009 » Sun May 08, 2011 5:17 am

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IMO a
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by Neilsheth2 » Fri Sep 04, 2015 2:36 am

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.... despite strained municipal budgets and fading federal support.

Can some one pls explain why is the sentence parallel. The part that is not underlined!
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by AsadAbu » Wed Sep 07, 2016 6:05 am

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selfmade wrote:More and more in recent years, cities are stressing the arts as a means to greater economic development and investing millions of dollars in cultural activities, despite strained municipal budgets and fading federal support.
(A) to greater economic development and investing
(B) to greater development economically and investing
(C) of greater economic development and invest
(D) of greater development economically and invest
(E) for greater economic development and the investment of

I picked C .

Can someone help explain when to use means to vs means of. Is means to a correct idiom ?
X as a means to y.....> x is used to make y
x as a means of y....> x is a type of y
hope it helps...
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by [email protected] » Sat Apr 06, 2019 10:32 am

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Hello Everyone!

Let's take a look at this question, one issue at a time, and narrow it down to the correct choice. To begin, here is the original question with the major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

More and more in recent years, cities are stressing the arts as a means to greater economic development and investing millions of dollars in cultural activities, despite strained municipal budgets and fading federal support.

(A) to greater economic development and investing
(B) to greater development economically and investing
(C) of greater economic development and invest
(D) of greater development economically and invest
(E) for greater economic development and the investment of

After a quick glance over the options, there are a few places we can focus on to narrow things down:

1. as a means to/of/for (idioms)
2. economic development / development economically (intended meaning)
3. investing / invest / the investment of (parallelism/verb choice)

Let's start with #1 on our list: as a means to/of/for. Each of these formats means something different, so we need to determine which one we'll need:

X as a means of Y = X is a type of Y
Memorization as a means of studying is not as efficient as you might think. (memorization is a type of studying)

X as a means to Y = X is a way to make Y happen
The soccer team runs 3 miles every day as a means to improve their endurance during games. (running is a way to improve their endurance)

X as a means for Y = not an idiom; eliminate any options that use this

Since the original sentence states that cities are stressing arts as a way to develop the economy and invest money, we need to use the phrase "X as a means to Y" for it to keep the intended meaning:

(A) to greater economic development and investing
(B) to greater development economically and investing
(C) of greater economic development and invest
(D) of greater development economically and invest
(E) for greater economic development and the investment of

We can eliminate options C & D because they use "X as a means of Y," which isn't what we need here. We can eliminate option E because "X as a means for Y" is not a correct idiom structure in English.

This only leaves us with 2 options, so let's look at #2 on our list: economic development vs. development economically. The words "economic" and "economically" mean two different things:

economic = adjective that refers to the economy
economically = adverb that means "cheaply or inexpensively" done

Let's see how each option handles this:

(A) to greater economic development and investing

This is CORRECT! The phrase "economic development" is what we're looking for here to show that stressing the arts will help to improve the economy.

(B) to greater development economically and investing

This is INCORRECT because the phrase "development economically" is not what we want here. This phrase means that stressing the arts will help development happen more cheaply, which isn't what the writer is trying to say.


There you go - option A was the correct choice all along!


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