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A tough one from GMAT Prep

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by papumba2011 » Sun Apr 04, 2010 1:40 pm
In 1988, the council on Economic Priorities began publishing Shopping For a Better World, with the simple thesis of consumers having the power to change the companies by the simple expedient of refusing to buy.
a) same
b) which had the simple thesis of consumer having
c) where the thesis was simple: consumer having
d) with a thesis that is simple one: consumer have
e) whose thesis was simple: consumers have
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by student22 » Sun Apr 04, 2010 2:15 pm
B, I think. Parallelism between having and refusing. Which correctly refers to the book.

A. is wrong because it implies that the council on economic priorities had a simple thesis, rather than the book.

C is wrong because where can't refer to a book, it can only refer to a place.
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by tryingtocrack » Sun Apr 04, 2010 3:54 pm
IMO - B - which had the simple thesis of consumer having

which refers back to the "Shopping For a Better World" .
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by kevincanspain » Sun Apr 04, 2010 4:48 pm
It sounds awkward to say 'the simple thesis of consumers having ...' and this construction makes the sentence far too long. E is correctly written and concise, and it makes effective use of the colon to break the sentence into two shorter ones. I would have also liked 'which had a simple thesis: '
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by student22 » Sun Apr 04, 2010 5:39 pm
Kevin, I thought whose can't refer to a book?

Also, I thought the purpose of a semicolon, and not a colon, was to break up a sentence into two shorter ones.
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by vineetbatra » Sun Apr 04, 2010 6:22 pm
I think Whose can refer to both people and things. But my question is on colon, I though colon is usually used to list a few things?

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by reply2spg » Sun Apr 04, 2010 6:40 pm
E is good
papumba2011 wrote:In 1988, the council on Economic Priorities began publishing Shopping For a Better World, with the simple thesis of consumers having the power to change the companies by the simple expedient of refusing to buy.
a) same
b) which had the simple thesis of consumer having
c) where the thesis was simple: consumer having
d) with a thesis that is simple one: consumer have
e) whose thesis was simple: consumers have
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by lkm » Sun Apr 04, 2010 6:43 pm
vineetbatra wrote:I think Whose can refer to both people and things. But my question is on colon, I though colon is usually used to list a few things?

Vineet
Yes, WHOSE can refer to both People and Things.

COLON has multiple usage. It can used

1. To introduce logical consequences. (As used in the above question).
2. To introduce descriptive set (as you said).
3. Appositive
4. Direct Speech
5. Introduction of a definition.


Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_(punctuation)
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by lkm » Sun Apr 04, 2010 6:48 pm
papumba2011 wrote: In 1988, the council on Economic Priorities began publishing Shopping For a Better World, with the simple thesis of consumers having the power to change the companies by the simple expedient of refusing to buy.
a) same
b) which had the simple thesis of consumer having
c) where the thesis was simple: consumer having
d) with a thesis that is simple one: consumer have
e) whose thesis was simple: consumers have
B) is out because WHICH will point to WORLD whereas it should point to THE COUNCIL.
C) is out because WHERE is used for referring back to places.
D) is out because IS not correct tense over here.


Between (A) and (E), (E) is more clear and concise. Choose (E).
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by student22 » Sun Apr 04, 2010 8:04 pm
Well that's good to know that whose can refer to things. The reason I quickly eliminated that choice was because I thought it couldn't.
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by fibbonnaci » Sun Apr 04, 2010 8:36 pm
hey 'whose' is a relative pronoun. Therefore it refers to the noun going just before it. Here in this case:'world'

how can E be correct? how can world have a thesis??
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by samarpan_bschool » Mon Apr 05, 2010 2:10 am
@fibbonnaci - Since 'shopping for the better world' is highlighted, i think we cannot separate it. So 'whose' should refer to 'shooping for the better world' - a single word
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by pops » Mon Apr 05, 2010 2:53 am
lkm wrote:
papumba2011 wrote: In 1988, the council on Economic Priorities began publishing Shopping For a Better World, with the simple thesis of consumers having the power to change the companies by the simple expedient of refusing to buy.
a) same
b) which had the simple thesis of consumer having
c) where the thesis was simple: consumer having
d) with a thesis that is simple one: consumer have
e) whose thesis was simple: consumers have
B) is out because WHICH will point to WORLD whereas it should point to THE COUNCIL.
C) is out because WHERE is used for referring back to places.
D) is out because IS not correct tense over here.


Between (A) and (E), (E) is more clear and concise. Choose (E).
Hey, can you please explain that if which points to world then why not where and whose?
I still feel B is the right choice !
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by gmat_Tutor » Mon Apr 05, 2010 3:10 am
In 1988, the Council on Economic Priorities began publishing Shopping for a Better World, with the simple thesis of consumers having the power to change companies by the simple expedient of refusing to buy.

A. with the simple thesis of consumers having
B. which had the simple thesis of consumers having
C. where the thesis was simple: consumers having
D. with a thesis that is a simple one: consumers have
E. whose thesis was simple: consumers have

First Grammar:
1."X of Karim having" is not correct.
=> "Preposition + Noun + Verb + ing" is wrong.
It could be "X of Karim's having" .
This rules out A and B.

2.Semicolon:
=> Before semicolon there should always be a clause. After semicolon there can be a list, or examples. After semicolon, there can be a clause.
=> C can be ruled out for not having finite verb after semicolon.
3."Thesis that is simple one" can be replaced by "a simple thesis".
=> This rules out D.
Answer is E.
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by harshavardhanc » Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:21 am
fibbonnaci wrote:hey 'whose' is a relative pronoun. Therefore it refers to the noun going just before it. Here in this case:'world'

how can E be correct? how can world have a thesis??
the noun that whose refers to is the book/publication : Shopping for a Better World

that's why you see the first letters as capitalized. It is one single entity and as rightly said by Samarpan, we cannot break it up in individual words to form different nouns.
Regards,
Harsha
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