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Tough SC question - Expert needed

by Mo2men » Wed Mar 30, 2016 5:07 pm
For Ralph Waldo Emerson, transcendentalism was his professed ideal over a century before the contemporary American environmental movement was launched with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and he outlined his beliefs in his essay, "Nature," arguing that man does not fully accept nature's beauty and all that it has to offer.

A)was launched with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and he outlined his beliefs in his essay, "Nature," arguing that man does not fully accept nature's beauty and all that it has to offer.

B)launched itself with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, and outlined his beliefs in his essay, "Nature," which argued that man does not fully accept nature's beauty and all that it offers.

C)launched with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring; he outlined his beliefs in his essay, "Nature," which argued that man does not fully accept nature's beauty and all that it has to offer.

D)launched Rachel Carson's Silent Spring; Emerson outlined his beliefs in his essay, "Nature," arguing that man does not fully accept nature's beauty and all that it has to offer.

E)was launched with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring; in it he outlined his beliefs in this essay, "Nature," arguing that man does not fully accept nature's beauty and all that it offers.
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by GMATGuruNY » Thu Mar 31, 2016 3:13 am
For Ralph Waldo Emerson, transcendentalism was his professed ideal.
Here, for Ralph Waldo Emerson and his are redundant.
Conveyed meaning:
Transcendentalism for Ralph Waldo Emerson was Ralph Waldo Emerson's professed ideal.

This very error is tested in the OG12.
SC52, answer choice B:
For Josephine Baker, Paris was her home.
OE in the OG12:
"For Josephine Baker ... her is redundant."

Ignore the SC above.
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by Saikiran Dudyala » Tue Apr 05, 2016 4:30 am
Hey Mo2Men,

It is very easy to come down to the answer to this question, if you follow the right approach really well.

Phase - 1;

The first step is obviously to find out the error in the sentence. You can use either the options or the core sentence itself to do it. Let us use the easier way i.e to use the options.
If you notice, there are three options that begin with "launched" and two options that start with a "was". The "was" makes the component associated with it as a main verb. So the question that you need to answer in your head is whether you need a main verb to make the sentence complete.
You will realize that the main verb is unnecessary here as the main clause exists in the sentence already. The clause is "...Transcendentalism was his professed ideal....". Since there is a main clause already, we wouldn't need another principal verb. This eliminates Options A and E.

Phase - 2;

Coming down to B,C and D you will observe something remarkable with Option B. The word "itself" indicates that the American Environmental movement launched itself. This is illogical because a movement cannot launch itself; you will need some person to launch it.
This eliminates Option B.

Phase - 3;

Now you have Option C and D under consideration. Similar to the reason to eliminate B, you will observe that in Option D, the sentence says that the movement launched Silent Spring. This is again illogical and hence eliminates Option D.

Thus Option C is the right answer.

Potentially, I would want to point out some mistakes that students normally would make on these questions.

1. Most students wouldn't notice the repetitive verb funda. Students think that a main verb is necessary and fall out of track in the first option itself.

2. Once the first two options are eliminated, the question employs logic more than Grammar. Hence students might employ too much of time coming down to the final answer.

Hope that helped!

Thanks,

Saikiran Dudyala
Sr.Manager - Academics and Operations.
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