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Fatigue among shift workers

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by Benni » Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:03 am
Hi,

I have a question regarding the following SC task:

Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have reduced sickness, sleeping on the job, fatigue among shift workers, and have raised production efficiency in various industries.

(A) fatigue among shift workers, and have raised
(B) fatigue among shift workers, and raised
(C) and fatigue among shift workers while raising
(D) lowered fatigue among shift workers, and raised
(E) and fatigue among shift workers was lowered while raising

OA is C.

I understand that D and E are wrong as they are redundant. I also see that A and B are wrong as they do not convey the contrast between improved work conditions and increased productivity.

Now C includes paralellism and conveys contrast using while. However, isn' t "while raising" a misplaced modifier, which could also be referring to "workers". Don' t we need to insert a comma to make clear, that "while raising" refers to the whole clause?

Many thanks,
Benni
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by ivyctor2010 » Mon Oct 08, 2012 12:29 pm
I don't see how "while raising" modifies workers here. While a comma might only be a good-to-have to indicate a pause here its like Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have done A while raising B". Makes sense.
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Oct 08, 2012 3:01 pm
Benni wrote:Hi,

I have a question regarding the following SC task:

Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have reduced sickness, sleeping on the job, fatigue among shift workers, and have raised production efficiency in various industries.

(A) fatigue among shift workers, and have raised
(B) fatigue among shift workers, and raised
(C) and fatigue among shift workers while raising
(D) lowered fatigue among shift workers, and raised
(E) and fatigue among shift workers was lowered while raising

OA is C.

I understand that D and E are wrong as they are redundant. I also see that A and B are wrong as they do not convey the contrast between improved work conditions and increased productivity.

Now C includes paralellism and conveys contrast using while. However, isn' t "while raising" a misplaced modifier, which could also be referring to "workers". Don' t we need to insert a comma to make clear, that "while raising" refers to the whole clause?

Many thanks,
Benni
An ADVERBIAL modifier such as while raising cannot modify a NOUN such as workers.
Thus, it is clear that while raising serves to modify the preceding ACTION:
Shift-work equations HAVE REDUCED sickness WHILE RAISING production efficiency.

I posted an explanation for this SC here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/verb-structu ... 17528.html
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by Benni » Tue Oct 09, 2012 10:01 am
Thank you very much Mitch. This really helped.
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