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Ex - 2 DARPA

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Ex - 2 DARPA

by e-GMAT » Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:59 am
This question is the second practice problem of meaning based questions that tests proper placement of modifiers.

For more details on the strategies that GMAT uses to distort meaning, refer to this article.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/07/ ... ing-part-2

Example 2 - Darpa

DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle can fly as fast as 6X the speed of sound and can attack a target 2000 miles away in 30 minutes, its engine's thrust prevented from dissipating in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design.

1. its engine's thrust prevented from dissipating in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design
2. preventing its engine's thrust from dissipating in the stratosphere because of its conical unibody design
3. preventing the dissipation of its engine's thrust in the stratosphere due to its conical unibody design
4. prevented its engine's thrust from being dissipated in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design
5. its engine's thrust is prevented from being dissipated in the stratosphere because of its conical unibody design

The detailed official solution will be provided soon.
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by kartikshah » Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:37 am
I guess the correct answer should be A
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by vk_vinayak » Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:51 am
e-GMAT wrote:This question is the second practice problem of meaning based questions that tests proper placement of modifiers.

For more details on the strategies that GMAT uses to distort meaning, refer to this article.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/07/ ... ing-part-2

Example 2 - Darpa

DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle can fly as fast as 6X the speed of sound and can attack a target 2000 miles away in 30 minutes, its engine's thrust prevented from dissipating in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design.

1. its engine's thrust prevented from dissipating in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design >> Correct appositive construction. Shows that the act of vehicle's flying as gast as 6X the speed of light that prevents the engine's thrust from dissipating.

2. preventing its engine's thrust from dissipating in the stratosphere because of its conical unibody design >> Incorrectly says that DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle prevents the engine's thrust, while it is the act of vehicle's flying as gast as 6X the speed of light that prevents the engine's thrust from dissipating.

3. preventing the dissipation of its engine's thrust in the stratosphere due to its conical unibody design >> Same as 2.

4. prevented its engine's thrust from being dissipated in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design >> Here 'prevented' illogically modifies 30 minutes.

5. its engine's thrust is prevented from being dissipated in the stratosphere because of its conical unibody design >> Comma splice. Two independent clauses are linked by comma.

The detailed official solution will be provided soon.
- VK

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by bubbliiiiiiii » Tue Jul 24, 2012 4:34 am
e-GMAT wrote:
DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle can fly as fast as 6X the speed of sound and can attack a target 2000 miles away in 30 minutes, its engine's thrust prevented from dissipating in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design.

1. its engine's thrust prevented from dissipating in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design
2. preventing its engine's thrust from dissipating in the stratosphere because of its conical unibody design
3. preventing the dissipation of its engine's thrust in the stratosphere due to its conical unibody design
4. prevented its engine's thrust from being dissipated in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design
5. its engine's thrust is prevented from being dissipated in the stratosphere because of its conical unibody design
IMO
A
This questions tests the concept of noun phrase modifier.

DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle can fly as fast as 6X the speed of sound and can attack a target 2000 miles away in 30 minutes, its engine's thrust prevented from dissipating in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design.

Intended meaning:
1. DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle can fly at some speed and can attack something at a certain distance within sometime.
2. Vehicle's thrust is prevented from dissipation in the stratosphere.
3. The dissipation is prevented by vehicle's conical design.

Going to options,
B and C incorrectly conveys that vehicle itself prevents the dissipation.
D - COMMA + prevented modifies the preceding noun. Thus, prevented in this case modifies something else which it should not.
E - Although the option written as it is grammatically correct, the options fails to properly connect to the non underlined portion and thus creates a run on sentence.

Please correct my understanding if its improper.
Regards,

Pranay
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by e-GMAT » Tue Jul 24, 2012 7:10 am
Here is the official explanation for this question:

DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle can fly as fast as 6X the speed of sound and can attack a target 2000 miles away in 30 minutes, its engine's thrust prevented from dissipating in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design.

A. its engine's thrust prevented from dissipating in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design
B. preventing its engine's thrust from dissipating in the stratosphere because of its conical unibody design
C. preventing the dissipation of its engine's thrust in the stratosphere due to its conical unibody design
D. prevented its engine's thrust from being dissipated in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design
E. its engine's thrust is prevented from being dissipated in the stratosphere because of its conical unibody design

Image

The sentence presents a fact about DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (FHTV). It states that this vehicle can fly as fast as 6 times the speed of sound. It can attack a target 2000 miles away in 30 minutes. Then the sentence presents the reason why such performance is achievable. The engine's thrust is prevented from being dissipated in the stratosphere. This is because of the conical unibody design.

Image

DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle can fly as fast as 6X the speed of sound and can attack a target 2000 miles away in 30 minutes, its engine's thrust prevented from dissipating in the stratosphere by its conical unibody design.

This sentence contains a single clause with the SV pair highlighted. The underlined portion of the sentence contains a modifier - a noun + noun modifier structure. This modifier provides further information about how the vehicle can fly this fast and can attack this fast and this far away. The sentence has no grammatical errors and communicates the meaning very clearly.

POE:

Choice B - Even though grammatically correct, this choice distorts the meaning of the sentence since now it uses "verb-ing modifier" in place of "noun + noun modifier". Thus instead of now presenting a mechanism of how the vehicle is this fast, it presents the following two meanings, both of which are illogical:
1.The vehicle itself prevents its thrust from dissipating - Illogical.
2.The vehicle goes this fast and this results in preventing its thrust from dissipating. - Reversed causal relationship - hence illogical.

Choice C - Same errors as in Choice B. Furthermore, "due to" is not used correctly. Here it may illogically imply that the dissipation of thrust is due to conical design.

Choice D - Use of verb-ed modifier in this sentence is not correct. Typically these modifiers are used to modify the nouns. Even if they are used to modify the clauses, they associate with the subject of the clause, and this is non-sensical in the context of this sentence as discussed in choice B analysis.

Choice E - This choice connects two independent clauses using comma. Semicolon should be used. Furthermore, this choice is very wordy.

Image

1. Understand the meaning of the original sentence and determine the role of each modifier.
2. Be cautious of change of structure of modifiers since such changes even though grammatically correct may distort the meaning of the sentence.

Thanks.
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