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doubt 20

by aditya8062 » Sat Oct 04, 2014 10:32 pm
In an effort to shorten the time span and cut the costs needed to grow full size beef stock, many ranchers substitute cornmeal and ground bones for their cattle's regular diet, branded by them to become generic-grade beef.

A. for their cattle's regular diet, branded by them
B. for the regular diet of their cattle which have been branded
C. for the regular diet of their cattle, having been branded
D. in place of their cattle's diet, for those of them branded
E. in place of the regular diet of their cattle to have been branded by them

my doubt: the OA of this question is B. my concern is regarding the usage of "which" in B. can we use "which" as restrictive? is GMAC really changing its stand on the usage of "which"?. recently a friend of mine took GMAT and told me that he encountered a question in which he was forced to pick an answer with "which" as restrictive ( without COMMA). How can we reconcile numerous explanations by OG that have eliminated answer choice on the basis that "which" cannot be used restrictive
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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Oct 05, 2014 3:29 am
In an effort to shorten the time span and cut the costs needed to grow full size beef stock, many ranchers substitute cornmeal and ground bones for their cattle's regular diet, branded by them to become generic-grade beef.

A. for their cattle's regular diet, branded by them
B. for the regular diet of their cattle which have been branded
C. for the regular diet of their cattle, having been branded
D. in place of their cattle's diet, for those of them branded
E. in place of the regular diet of their cattle to have been branded by them
Generally, COMMA + VERBed serves to modify the preceding noun.
In A, branded seems to modify diet, implying that the DIET was BRANDED.
Not the intended meaning.
Eliminate A.

Generally, COMMA + having + VERBed serves to refer to the preceding subject.
In C, having been branded seems to refer to many ranchers, implying that MANY RANCHERS have BEEN BRANDED.
Not the intended meaning.
Eliminate C.

In D and E, substitute and in place of are redundant.
Eliminate D and E.

The best answer is B.
aditya8062 wrote: my doubt: the OA of this question is B. my concern is regarding the usage of "which" in B. can we use "which" as restrictive? is GMAC really changing its stand on the usage of "which"?. recently a friend of mine took GMAT and told me that he encountered a question in which he was forced to pick an answer with "which" as restrictive ( without COMMA). How can we reconcile numerous explanations by OG that have eliminated answer choice on the basis that "which" cannot be used restrictive
The explanation for SC12 in the OG12 reads as follows:
"In (A) and (C), which introduces a restrictive clause. Some writers follow the convention that which can only be used for nonrestrictive clauses, but insistence on this rule is controversial, and both (A) and (C) can be rejected on other grounds".

Given this explanation, I would not immediately eliminate an answer choice solely because it employs which to introduce a restrictive clause.
Instead, I would look for errors that cannot be debated.
In the SC above, A, C, D and E each have a clear error, making B the only viable answer choice.
Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Sun Oct 05, 2014 5:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by aditya8062 » Sun Oct 05, 2014 4:58 am
Thanks Guru
i get a feeling that GMAC has a tendency of reading these forums and because "some rules" have been propounded so heavily (such as "which" rule , "being" rule) that GMAC wants to play around with their correct nature, after all "anything" cannot be wrong always !

GURU can u please tell me as when "being" can be correct?
Thanks
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by Aman Ahuja » Thu Oct 09, 2014 10:26 am
Hi Aditya
Here is a detailed explanation
When the use of "being" is correct?
the short answer to this question: basically, "being" is ok when there are no acceptable alternative formulations
that DON'T use it.
from what we've seen, "being" can be ok as long as at least one of the following 2 conditions obtains:
(1) it is part of a PASSIVE-VOICE construction (note that such constructions require a form of "to be", so, if
the passive voice is in the -ing form, that form will manifest as "being");
or
(2) it is used as a GERUND (i.e., the action of "being something" is treated as a NOUN in the sentence).
most, but not all, of these gerunds will be the gerund form of a construction in the passive voice.
Examples: (the first one i made up; the other three are correct answers to official problems)
Being followed by paparazzi 24 hours a day has caused many celebrities to become extremely hostile to
strangers. (source: i made this up on the spot)
(note that this is both --> it's a passive-voice gerund!)
During the 1950s, as part of their therapy, young polio victims learning to live with their disabilities were
helped to practice falling, so that they could learn to fall without being hurt.(source: gmat prep)
(again, passive voice gerund)
According to one expert, the cause of genetic irregularities in many breeds of dog is not so much that dogs
are being bred for looks or to meet other narrow criteria as that the breeds have relatively few founding
members. (source: gmat prep)
(passive; not gerund)
Being heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that has worked well in the past, is likely to
make an executive miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear. (source: gmat
prep; also in the OG verbal supplement)
(gerund; not passive)
here are a few pointers, though definitely short of a full treatment:

* in general, "being NOUN", "being ADJ" or "being a/an NOUN" will usually be suspicious.
- an important exception occurs when this sort of phrase is the actual SUBJECT of the sentence (as it is in this problem). i.e., if "being committed" is the subject, then there's really no other effective way to voice that idea.
-incorrect if this sort of thing is a MODIFIER, it will essentially never be correct, since in that case you can merely remove "being" and the modifier will still make sense.
for instance, if you have "being committed to his job, bob...", then that can be reduced to "committed to his job, bob..."

* "being VERBed" - i.e., PASSIVE VOICE construction - will be correct a lot of the time.
- If you can remove being from a answer choice remove it
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