Sentence Correction

Ordinances prohibiting alcohol consumption and limiting noise levels on municipal beaches have been passed in several cities throughout the state; the concern of beachfront businesses is whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state and patronize our beaches after their restrictions are enacted.

A
whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state and patronize our beaches after their restrictions are
B
whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state to patronize one once their restrictions are
C
whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state to patronize our beaches once the cities' restrictions have been
D
if students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state and patronize our beaches once the cities' restrictions are

E
if students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state to patronize one after the cities' restrictions have been

OA:[spoiler] C Agree with if and whether, but is the construction in C to vacation in our state to patronize correct ? Will it not change the meaning?[/spoiler]

Interesting rahulvsd -- in our haste, we didn't even notice that modification between the OA and the original! We had analyzed this just for grammar. Thanks for raising this question about it! It forced us to look again.

We also agree that it changes the meaning, however we feel that the change corrects an error of imprecision in the original.

As written, the original sentence could be broken down to these two ideas: will the new restrictions cause students not to vacation here? *AND* will they cause students not to patronize our beaches?

The new ordinances would not (theoretically) have any effect on the vacationing part -- students could come to other, non-beach cities in the state and not be affected by the ordinances. So, the change in C is appropriate, since it links the two ideas together - the concern is about whether students will come for vacations IN ORDER TO patronize the beaches.

In this case, the OA fixes not only a grammar problem, but also improves clarity and fixes an error with meaning, too. Tricky tricky!!!

EssaySnark

Agreed, IMO: C

rahulvsd wrote:Ordinances prohibiting alcohol consumption and limiting noise levels on municipal beaches have been passed in several cities throughout the state; the concern of beachfront businesses is whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state and patronize our beaches after their restrictions are enacted.

A
whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state and patronize our beaches after their restrictions are
B
whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state to patronize one once their restrictions are
C
whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state to patronize our beaches once the cities' restrictions have been
D
if students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state and patronize our beaches once the cities' restrictions are

E
if students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state to patronize one after the cities' restrictions have been

OA:[spoiler] C Agree with if and whether, but is the construction in C to vacation in our state to patronize correct ? Will it not change the meaning?[/spoiler]

In D and E, the use of if is incorrect. If is used to express a CONDITION; whether is used to discuss ALTERNATIVES. The SC above is describing two alternatives: WHETHER the students will -- or will not -- continue to vacation in the state. Eliminate D and E.

In A and B, their lacks a clear antecedent. Eliminate A and B.

The correct answer is C.

The poster of this SC is concerned that C -- which replaces AND patronize with TO patronize -- changes the meaning of the sentence. The goal is to preserve the INTENDED meaning of the original sentence. The beachfront businesses likely would be worried not about ALL students who vacation in the state but ONLY about those students who come TO patronize the beaches. Thus, it could be argued that C better conveys the INTENDED meaning than does A.

By the way, this SC mirrors SC75 from the OG12:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/a-proposal-h ... 10202.html

Thanks a lot Mitch.

rahulvsd wrote:Ordinances prohibiting alcohol consumption and limiting noise levels on municipal beaches have been passed in several cities throughout the state; the concern of beachfront businesses is whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state and patronize our beaches after their restrictions are enacted.

A
whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state and patronize our beaches after their restrictions are
B
whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state to patronize one once their restrictions are
C
whether students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state to patronize our beaches once the cities' restrictions have been
D
if students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state and patronize our beaches once the cities' restrictions are

E
if students on spring break will continue to vacation in our state to patronize one after the cities' restrictions have been

OA:[spoiler] C Agree with if and whether, but is the construction in C to vacation in our state to patronize correct ? Will it not change the meaning?[/spoiler]

C it is !!

I originally picked C and switched to D.

I am having issues with this particular section of C:

"...in our state to patronize..."

Shouldn't it read:

"...in our state in order to patronize..."

Hi bpdulog --

The use of "to" in that sentence is fine. It would also be correct to say "in order to" but it's not necessary. The C option means exactly the same thin in this case.

EssaySnark

GMATGuruNY wrote: The poster of this SC is concerned that C -- which replaces AND patronize with TO patronize -- changes the meaning of the sentence. The goal is to preserve the INTENDED meaning of the original sentence. The beachfront businesses likely would be worried not about ALL students who vacation in the state but ONLY about those students who come TO patronize the beaches. Thus, it could be argued that C better conveys the INTENDED meaning than does A.

By the way, this SC mirrors SC75 from the OG12:

GMATGuruNY, IMHO, I don't think we can compare OG12-SC75 with this one.

In OG12-SC75, there it is highly likely that "tourists will continue to visit game
parks to see rhinoceroses", which essentially means it might be the purpose of their visit to see rhinoceroses.

However, in this question, I have never heard people visiting places to patronize attractions(beaches, monuments etc.). People visit these places to enjoy not to patronize enterprises.

Moreover, the reason why GMAC prefers "whether" over "if" is that that "if" (as it may have two different meanings based on context) makes sentence ambiguous.

In this particular sentence, I think C is changing the meaning of the sentence to such an extent that use of "If" becomes a smaller error.

Please provide your opinion on my understanding.

anordinaryguy wrote:

GMATGuruNY wrote: The poster of this SC is concerned that C -- which replaces AND patronize with TO patronize -- changes the meaning of the sentence. The goal is to preserve the INTENDED meaning of the original sentence. The beachfront businesses likely would be worried not about ALL students who vacation in the state but ONLY about those students who come TO patronize the beaches. Thus, it could be argued that C better conveys the INTENDED meaning than does A.

By the way, this SC mirrors SC75 from the OG12:

GMATGuruNY, IMHO, I don't think we can compare OG12-SC75 with this one.

In OG12-SC75, there it is highly likely that "tourists will continue to visit game
parks to see rhinoceroses", which essentially means it might be the purpose of their visit to see rhinoceroses.

However, in this question, I have never heard people visiting places to patronize attractions(beaches, monuments etc.). People visit these places to enjoy not to patronize enterprises.

Moreover, the reason why GMAC prefers "whether" over "if" is that that "if" (as it may have two different meanings based on context) makes sentence ambiguous.

In this particular sentence, I think C is changing the meaning of the sentence to such an extent that use of "If" becomes a smaller error.

Please provide your opinion on my understanding.

WHY do people vacation in our state?
To patronize our beaches -- certainly a valid reason.

If students will continue to vacation in our state is an ADVERBIAL MODIFIER.
We cannot say that a NOUN (our concern) is an ADVERB (if students will continue to vacation).
Whether students will continue to vacation in our state is a NOUN CLAUSE.
Thus, in the OA, one noun (our concern) = another noun (whether students will continue to vacation is our state):
Our CONCERN is WHETHER students will continue to vacation in our state.

An IF-clause cannot serve as a noun.