Conan Doyle's book

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faraz_jeddah: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 358; Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2013 9:46 amFollowed by: 7 members; Location: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Thanked: 42 times; GMAT Score:730

by faraz_jeddah » Mon Aug 26, 2013 1:50 am

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Coming of the Fairies revealed that this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist affected in both his private life and his friendships by his belief in psychic phenomena.

(A) that this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist affected in both his private life and

(B) that this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist and also affected in his his private life and

(C) this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist and that he was affected in both his private life and

(D) this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist and that he was affected in both his private life as well as

(E) this creator of the most famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, to have been a spiritualist and that he affected himself both in his private life as well as

OA is A

I got it down to A and B and chose B.

I am not convinced with "was a spiritualist affected in both his private life"

I am not sure about who or what is affecting what? Is is the fact that he is a spiritualist? or Sherlock holmes?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Mon Aug 26, 2013 1:50 am

vinay1983: Legendary Member; Posts: 643; Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Thanked: 48 times

by vinay1983 » Mon Aug 26, 2013 5:50 am

faraz_jeddah wrote:Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Coming of the Fairies revealed that this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist affected in both his private life and his friendships by his belief in psychic phenomena.

(A) that this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist affected in both his private life and

(B) that this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist and also affected in his his private life and

(C) this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist and that he was affected in both his private life and

(D) this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist and that he was affected in both his private life as well as

(E) this creator of the most famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, to have been a spiritualist and that he affected himself both in his private life as well as

OA is A

I got it down to A and B and chose B.

I am not convinced with "was a spiritualist affected in both his private life"

I am not sure about who or what is affecting what? Is is the fact that he is a spiritualist? or Sherlock holmes?

Edited the prompt for the correct underlined portion.

B has this "and also affected in his his private life and" repeated usage of and. It sounds wordy too and unclear.

As for the query on who i spiritual, it has to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, since we are discussing about him and not Holmes(Though initially I assumed that who should refer to Holmes, but the meaning gets distorted by this assumption)

You can, for example never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to!

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by [email protected] » Mon Aug 26, 2013 1:15 pm

Hi faraz_jeddah,

There's a subtle style rule that you have to be aware of in SCs: redundancy (specifically, the rule is DON'T BE REDUNDANT). In answer B, you'll notice the words "and also"; these two words mean the same thing, so you don't need them both. Thus, B is incorrect.

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ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pmFollowed by: 247 members; Thanked: 1443 times

by ceilidh.erickson » Tue Aug 27, 2013 11:33 am

The primary problem with B is not of redundancy or wordiness; it's meaning. (Nota bene: beware of using "wordiness" as a reason to eliminate answer choices in SC. Usually when answer choices are wordy, it's because they also distort or change the meaning of the sentence.)

In B, we're saying that Conan Doyle was two things: 1) a spiritualist, and 2) affected by belief in psychic phenomena. Grammatically, this isn't a problem. From a meaning standpoint, though, this doesn't make sense. A spiritualist is someone who believes in psychic phenomena, so these can't be two separate list items.

In SC, make sure that you're paying as much attention to the meaning of the sentence as to the structure.

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

alanforde800Maximus: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 187; Joined: Tue Sep 13, 2016 12:46 am

by alanforde800Maximus » Thu Sep 22, 2016 4:39 am

Can anyone share POE why other options are incorrect?

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ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pmFollowed by: 247 members; Thanked: 1443 times

by ceilidh.erickson » Thu Sep 22, 2016 3:38 pm

alanforde800Maximus wrote:Can anyone share POE why other options are incorrect?

Here you go:

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Coming of the Fairies revealed that this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist affected in both his private life and his friendships by his belief in psychic phenomena.
(A) that this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist affected in both his private life and
(B) that this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist and also affected in his his private life and
(C) this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist and that he was affected in both his private life and
(D) this creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, was a spiritualist and that he was affected in both his private life as well as
(E) this creator of the most famous detective Sherlock Holmes, who valued reason above all other qualities, to have been a spiritualist and that he affected himself both in his private life as well as

The major issue with C, D, and E is the lack of the word "that" before "this creator."

The word "that" signals the start of a DEPENDENT CLAUSE. These dependent clauses can function in several ways:

- as a modifier: The character that Doyle created was a detective. --> the clause is giving us modifying information about the character.

- as a subject (rarely used): That Doyle revolutionized the genre of detective fiction is an established fact. --> the entire clause is is functioning as the subject. Think "THIS is an established fact."

- as an object: Doyle knew that people are intrigued by mysteries. --> The clause is functioning as an object, much like "Doyle knew a fact."

In spoken English, we often drop the word "that" at the beginning of a dependent clause that's functioning as an object, and little meaning is lost: "Doyle knew people were interested." This has become common enough that it is now considered grammatically correct in many cases.

However... the GMAT generally does not allow us to drop the word "that" if it creates ambiguity about the object. If we say:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Coming of the Fairies revealed this creator...
it seems to imply that the book is revealing the creator himself, rather than the fact that the creator DID something. If we want the object of the verb to be an action - a clause - then we should use the word "that."

As a rule of thumb, when you see splits between answer choices that start with "that" versus answer choices that drop it, the right answer usually contains "that."

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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by ceilidh.erickson » Thu Sep 22, 2016 3:51 pm

It's worth pointing out that the GMAT is not always consistent in its usage of "that." Here's more on the subject:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/use-of-that- ... tml#769596

And here are some other questions with similar splits between "that" and no "that":

https://www.beatthegmat.com/doubt-regard ... 65356.html
https://www.beatthegmat.com/parallel-con ... 20369.html
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... 10790.html
https://www.beatthegmat.com/new-data-fro ... 69893.html

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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