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bejing

by FINALCOUNTDOWN » Wed Mar 04, 2009 1:04 am
757. The Forbidden City in Beijing, from which the emperors ruled by heavenly mandate, was a site which a commoner or foreigner could not enter without any permission, on pain of death.
(A) which a commoner or foreigner could not enter without any permission,
(B) which a commoner or foreigner could enter without any permission only
(C) which no commoner or foreigner could enter without permission,
(D) which, without permission, neither commoner or foreigner could only enter,
(E) which, to enter without permission, neither commoner or foreigner could do,

please explain why B is wrong.
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Re: bejing

by piyush_nitt » Wed Mar 04, 2009 2:49 am
FINALCOUNTDOWN wrote:757. The Forbidden City in Beijing, from which the emperors ruled by heavenly mandate, was a site which a commoner or foreigner could not enter without any permission, on pain of D€@th.
(A) which a commoner or foreigner could not enter without any permission,
(B) which a commoner or foreigner could enter without any permission only
(C) which no commoner or foreigner could enter without permission,
(D) which, without permission, neither commoner or foreigner could only enter,
(E) which, to enter without permission, neither commoner or foreigner could do,

please explain why B is wrong.
B doesnot sound right.

could enter without any permission only - awkward.

I am stuck between A and C

No X or Y (In C) - doesnot look right as well.

ll go with A .

whats an OA?
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by quocbao » Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:08 am
IMO is C

A is wordy
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by snsubbu » Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:32 am
E ,D and B sound awkward. Moreover, D and B change the meaning of the sentence itself !

Now between A and C, I would say A has two negatives and it does not sound right.

So i will settle for C.

What is the OA?
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by anku » Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:08 am
its B coz it sounds better
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by bmlaud » Wed Mar 04, 2009 8:07 am
(A) which a commoner or foreigner could not enter without any permission, - Double negative

(B) which a commoner or foreigner could enter without any permission only - Conveys opposite meaning

(C) which no commoner or foreigner could enter without permission,- correct

(D) which, without permission, neither commoner or foreigner could only enter, awkward, neither...nor....

(E) which, to enter without permission, neither commoner or foreigner could do - awkward
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Re: bejing

by karmayogi » Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:06 am
Rule of thumb in GMAT, avoid the option that changes the meaning of original sentence. Original sentence means, nobody could enter the city without permission. Option B changes the meaning. In option A, "without any permission" is awkward and wordy. In option C, "without permission" is pithy. D and E are very awkward. Hence, IMO C.

PS: 'which' after 'site' without comma is little awkward, but in GMAT we don't have "none of these" option :)
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by schumi_gmat » Wed Mar 04, 2009 12:47 pm
Author Message
karmayogi
In option A, "without any permission" is awkward and wordy
What is awkword about A? I would not choose A possibly because of word "any" which would make it wordy.

In C, is the idiom no X or Y correct?
Should it be no X nor Y?
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by krishnakumarhod » Wed Mar 04, 2009 2:10 pm
https://www.urch.com/forums/gmat-sentenc ... -city.html
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by karmayogi » Wed Mar 04, 2009 8:56 pm
schumi_gmat wrote:Author Message
karmayogi
In option A, "without any permission" is awkward and wordy
What is awkword about A? I would not choose A possibly because of word "any" which would make it wordy.

In C, is the idiom no X or Y correct?
Should it be no X nor Y?
You are right about A. 'any' is the bone of contention. There are not many permissions; anyone just needs permission to enter the site.

I am not 100% sure whether no X or Y is an idiom, but “no X nor Y” is surely wrong. ‘nor’ is a conjunction. As a correlative conjunction, it can be used only along with ‘neither’. Following is an important point about neither and nor: “When neither and nor are used together, they act as are correlative conjunctions: 'He was neither coming nor going'. You must use 'nor' following 'neither', you cannot use 'or‘. You can have more than one 'nor': 'It was neither raining nor snowing nor sunny.'”
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by Nailya » Fri Mar 06, 2009 1:09 pm
Its C, all other are awkward or distort the meaning
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