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GMATPrep: Lower End Insurance workers..

by iongmat » Sun Feb 17, 2013 9:46 am
Among lower paid workers union members are less likely than non-union members to be enrolled in lower end insurance plans imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients and spend less time with each. (GMAT Prep)

A. mposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend
B. imposing stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients, and spending
C. that impose stricter limits on medical services, require doctors to see more patients, and spend
D. that impose stricter limits on medical services and require doctors to see more patients, spending
E. that impose stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients and spending

OA is D

I understand why all other options are incorrect, but wanted to understand how D is correct. With D, the sentence would be:

Among lower paid workers union members are less likely than non-union members to be enrolled in lower end insurance plans that impose stricter limits on medical services and require doctors to see more patients, spending less time with each.

Basically,

...plans impose stricter limits on medical services and require doctors to see more patients, spending less time with each.

In other words,

...plans require doctors to see more patients, spending less time with each.

This seems to suggest that "plans" are spending less time with each. The reason being that "spending less time with each" is a participial phrase and hence it modifies the subject of the preceding clause ("plans"). But this clearly doesn't make sense.

Please explain.
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by Tommy Wallach » Sun Feb 17, 2013 11:29 am
Hey Ion,

What an ugly sentence. For the sake of others, let's go through all of these real quick:

(A) Parallelism way off (imposing and requiring and spend). Use of the original participle "imposing" is awkward.
(B) Third element of the list would say: "plans spending less time with each". Plans can't spend time with patients.
(C) Third element of the list would say: "plans spend less time with each". Same as above.
(D) In this case, the parallelism is impose/require, which is fine. "Spending" is a participle, modifying the previous clause and providing the result of that clause: "require doctors to see more patients" --> spending less time with each. For more examples of this:

I won the contest, pleasing my father greatly.
I did the unthinkable and jumped off the diving board, thereby beginning my career as a professional diver.

(E) "spending" in this case modifies the previous clause "imposing stricter limits on medical services," so we don't have the doctors actually doing the "spending less time with patients".

Hope that helps!

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by iongmat » Sun Feb 17, 2013 8:55 pm
Tommy Wallach wrote: I won the contest, pleasing my father greatly.
I did the unthinkable and jumped off the diving board, thereby beginning my career as a professional diver.
Thanks Tommy. This is where I was not very clear. In your examples, "I" pleased my father; "I" began my career.

Similarly, with D, the structure is:

...plans require doctors to see more patients, spending less time with each.

So, it seems that "plans" are spending less time with each.
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by Tommy Wallach » Sun Feb 17, 2013 10:17 pm
Hey Ion,

Believe it or not "I" is not beginning the career. "Beginning the career" is an adverbial modifier, modifying the entire preceding clause. Perhaps a clearer example, agian:

I won the contest, pleasing my father greatly.

Again, "pleasing" is not modifying I. That is not even a possible read of this sentence. Grammatically, "pleasing" is a participle modifying the entire preceding clause. It is used to provide the result of that clause.

Make more sense?

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by iongmat » Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:14 am
Hello Tommy,

Please refer to https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/amo ... 04-15.html

mschwrtz mentions:

John photographed his wife, wearing a bustier.
Comma, so "wearing..." attributes actions to "John." He wore the bustier.

Similarly here:

...plans require doctors to see more patients, spending less time with each.

So, it seems that "plans" are spending less time with each!!
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Feb 18, 2013 5:21 am
iongmat wrote:Among lower paid workers union members are less likely than non-union members to be enrolled in lower end insurance plans imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, spending less time with each.
COMMA + VERBing refers to the nearest preceding SUBJECT and serves to express an action that happens as PART OF THE PRECEDING VERB.
Typically, the VERBing action happens AT THE SAME TIME as the preceding verb or AS A RESULT of the preceding verb.
Here, spending refers to doctors, which serves not only as the direct object of requiring but also as the SUBJECT of to see.
What's unusual here is that the action that precedes the VERBing modifier is expressed by an infinitive (to see).
The conveyed meaning: doctors SEE more patients, with the result that the doctors are SPENDING less time with each patient.
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by iongmat » Mon Feb 18, 2013 6:15 am
GMATGuruNY wrote: COMMA + VERBing refers to the nearest preceding SUBJECT and serves to express an action that happens as PART OF THE PRECEDING VERB.
Interesting. So, in the following sentence:

The middleman cajoled the minister to sign the contract, thereby exposing the incompetent and corrupt ministry.

Are we supposed to interpret that the "minster" exposed the incompetent and corrupt ministry?
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by Tommy Wallach » Mon Feb 18, 2013 1:06 pm
Hey Ion,

You don't quite seem to be getting this. Michael's example on that other thread is incorrect. That sentence you cite would never be on the GMAT.

As Guru and I have said, The comma -ing structure is an adverbial modifier. So it will not modify nouns.

In your example, you once again try to attribute a comma -ing structure to a noun ("minister"). That isn't how it works. Remember, "exposing" is not a verb. You seem to be treating it as a verb, wondering what the subject is. But it's a participle, which is a modifier. It doesn't need to have a subject. So in your example "exposing the incompetent and corrupt ministry" modifies the entire preceding clause, explaining the result (as I've now said many times!). You seem to be doubting us. I promise we're right! : )

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by iongmat » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:24 pm
Thanks Tommy.

In one of the posts, Ron mentioned this about comma -ing modifiers:

COMMA -ING modifiers are adverbial. they:
* modify the ENTIRE PRECEDING CLAUSE
* are ATTRIBUTED TO THE SUBJECT of the PRECEDING CLAUSE

In the sentence under consideration:

...plans require doctors to see more patients, spending less time with each.

Mitch mentioned: Here, spending refers to doctors.

My sentence: The middleman cajoled the minister to sign the contract, thereby exposing the incompetent and corrupt ministry.

According to me, in this sentence, "exposing" should refer to "minster". However, there might be some difference between this sentence and the sentence under consideration. I just wanted to understand the difference, so that the learning stays with me.
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by Tommy Wallach » Tue Feb 19, 2013 1:05 pm
Hey Ion,

Yes, it adds up to the same thing. The action is attributed to the subject, but it is also the result. In one case, the ministry is exposed. In the other case, the doctors are able to spend less time with patients. However you'd like to think about is fine, just note that it's attributed to the subject, not directly acted upon by the subject.

Hope that makes sense!

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by iongmat » Tue Feb 19, 2013 8:26 pm
Sure Tommy. Thanks so much. It helped.
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