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Sentence Correction

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by RiyaR » Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:32 am
That El Salvador is pervaded by violence and stark terror was reported by Joan Didion in a disturbing series of articles recorded her impressions of the two weeks she spent in that small, remote nation.

That El Salvador is pervaded by violence and stark terror was reported by Joan Didion in a disturbing series of articles recorded

That violence and stark terror pervade El Salvador was reported by Joan Didion in a disturbing series of articles recording

Violence and stark terror pervade El Salvador, and were reported by Joan Didion in a disturbing series of articles recorded

Violence and stark terror pervade El Salvador, which was reported by Joan Didion in a disturbing series of articles recording

El Salvador is pervaded by violence and stark terror, and it was reported by Joan Didion in a disturbing series of articles recording
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by [email protected] » Thu Oct 16, 2014 11:39 am
Hi RiyaR,

This SC is written in a style that is not too common on the GMAT. From the answer choices, we can see that every option is written in "passive voice" (re: "was reported BY Joan Didion"), so we can't change that. One of the things that we CAN do is determine what the sentence is trying to communicate.

IF the sentence were written in the "active voice", then it would have stated:

"Joan Didion reported THAT violence and stark terror pervade El Salvador..." The word "that" is often used to point to a specific idea (in this case "violence and terror pervade El Salvador"). Breaking this sentence into "pieces" and moving the pieces around gives us Answer B.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
Contact Rich at [email protected]
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