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new york times

by pradeepkaushal9518 » Sun May 02, 2010 10:48 pm
23. A recent New York Times editorial criticized the city's election board for, first of all, failing to replace outmoded voting machines prone to breakdowns, and secondarily, for their failure to investigate allegations of corruption involving board members.
(A) secondarily, for their failure to
(B) secondly, for their failure to
(C) secondly, that they failed and did not
(D) second, that they failed to
(E) second, for failing to

plz answer
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by beat_gmat_09 » Sun May 02, 2010 10:52 pm
pradeepkaushal9518 wrote:23. A recent New York Times editorial criticized the city's election board for, first of all, failing to replace outmoded voting machines prone to breakdowns, and secondarily, for their failure to investigate allegations of corruption involving board members.
(A) secondarily, for their failure to
(B) secondly, for their failure to
(C) secondly, that they failed and did not
(D) second, that they failed to
(E) second, for failing to

plz answer
I will choose E.
failing to should be parallel, second is parallel to first.
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by vivek1110 » Mon May 03, 2010 12:29 am
+1 for E

A - Secondarily, sounds awkward

B - Secondly is not parallel with first, also "their" is ambiguous

C - Same as above

D - again "they" is ambiguous

E - is parallel, and concise.
Is caught between a rock and a hard place!
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by beat_gmat_09 » Mon May 03, 2010 4:12 am
OA?
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by aspirant2010 » Mon May 03, 2010 9:40 am
I would go for E.......

A,B,C and D contains plural they and board is singular.
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by hariharakarthi » Mon May 03, 2010 12:27 pm
+1 E.

Core sentence structure is below,
NY - Editorial criticized City's Election Board for (1) first reason and (2) second reason.

It is a list with conjunction word "and". Hence, both should be parallel.

Underlined section of the sentence tells about the second reason. It should be parallel to first.

Moreover, the other options have pronoun ( their or they ), which does not have an proper logical antecedent.

The possible antecedents available here are
1. NY Times Editorial
2. City's Election board

The possible logical antecedent here is Election Board. The correct pronoun for that will be "it".

Rules of Parallelism and antecedent will determine the correct answer here. That is E.

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by gmat_coolguy » Mon May 03, 2010 12:35 pm
I will go for E too
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by pradeepkaushal9518 » Mon May 03, 2010 6:13 pm
OA Is E
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by frank1 » Mon May 03, 2010 7:32 pm
well beside parallelism and all
one reason i jumped straight to E was
board in this case seems singular and use of they and thier doesnt sounds right in IT.
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by neha.patni » Tue May 04, 2010 2:41 am
pradeepkaushal9518 wrote:23. A recent New York Times editorial criticized the city's election board for, first of all, failing to replace outmoded voting machines prone to breakdowns, and secondarily, for their failure to investigate allegations of corruption involving board members.
(A) secondarily, for their failure to
(B) secondly, for their failure to
(C) secondly, that they failed and did not
(D) second, that they failed to
(E) second, for failing to

plz answer
IMO E
Second is the correct choice not secondly and Parallel construction
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by gtvisa2002 » Thu May 06, 2010 7:13 am
Hi,

I agree with others that E might be the best answer.
But my question is,

election board for, first of all, failing to .... second, for failing...

Here if I am not wrong, "For" is not needed after the word "second" because the "for" after the word "board" is applicable for both first and second reasons as it is a parallel construction.

Could anyone please explain, why do we need another "for" .
Thanks.
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by pradeepkaushal9518 » Thu May 06, 2010 10:01 pm
plz experts comment
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by reply2spg » Wed Sep 22, 2010 8:31 am
What is your question? This is simple sentence. 'election board' is singular and you have 'they/their' plural in a,b,c, and d. So only E is correct.
pradeepkaushal9518 wrote:plz experts comment
Sudhanshu
(have lot of things to learn from all of you)
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by ChrisBKnewton » Wed Sep 22, 2010 10:31 am
gtvisa2002 wrote:Hi,

I agree with others that E might be the best answer.
But my question is,

election board for, first of all, failing to .... second, for failing...

Here if I am not wrong, "For" is not needed after the word "second" because the "for" after the word "board" is applicable for both first and second reasons as it is a parallel construction.

Could anyone please explain, why do we need another "for" .
Thanks.
Hi gtvisa2002,

I think I understand the source of your confusion.

Here, "for" is serving as what's sometimes known as a function word. When a list of two or more items should follow a parallel grammatical structure, function words that introduce these items should also fit this parallel form. Such function words include prepositions and articles.

In a parallel construction, a function word may be placed before only the first item in a list. Ex: Julie has traveled to France, Italy, and Argentina during the past year.

However, function words may also be repeated before each item in the list. Ex. Julie has traveled to France, to Italy, and to Argentina during the past year. This is the case in choice E above.

In general, the important thing to remember is that a function word may not be placed before more than one but fewer than every item in a list. Ex. Julie has traveled to France, Italy, and to Argentina during the past year.

I hope this helps!
Chris Black
Web Content Editor
Knewton
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