Heavy commitment by an executive

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Wed May 17, 2017 12:32 pm

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Mo2men wrote:Dear GMATGuru,

In choice B, regardless of meaning and problem of ones, does the following construction work?

An executive....makes misinterpreting them.....please not my focus is the verb 'makes' + misinterpreting' NOT the pronoun them or ones.

I think it should be:

An executive....makes misinterpretation of them

Am i correct?

All of the following seem awkward:
X makes misinterpreting signs likely.
X makes misinterpretation of signs likely.
X makes the misinterpretation of signs likely.

When a form of make serves to refer to an induced action, the induced action is usually expressed in an INFINITIVE PHRASE or a THAT-CLAUSE.
In many cases, the to will be omitted from the infinitive phrase.

OA: Being heavily committed is likely to make an executive [to] miss signs or [to] misinterpret them.
Here, the infinitive phrase in blue serves to express the two induced actions.
In this case, the to is omitted from each infinitive.

An OA in GMATPrep:
A law passed in 1933 making it a crime to hold gold in the form of bullions.
Here, the infinitive phrase in blue serves to express the induced action.

An RC passage in the OG13:
The complexity of these relationships makes it unlikely that a system of import relief laws will meet the strategic needs.
Here, the that-clause in blue serves to express the induced action.

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Mo2men: Legendary Member; Posts: 712; Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:39 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 14 times

by Mo2men » Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:32 am

GMATGuruNY wrote: An OA in GMATPrep:
A law passed in 1933 making it a crime to hold gold in the form of bullions.
Here, the infinitive phrase in blue serves to express the induced action.

An RC passage in the OG13:
The complexity of these relationships makes it unlikely that a system of import relief laws will meet the strategic needs.
Here, the that-clause in blue serves to express the induced action.

Dear Mitch,

In light of explanation above, all the cited examples are considered 'empty it', So why does 'it' in choice A not considered as 'empty it' too?

Choice A: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action................. makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.

As you you explained 'empty it' before, 'it' is always refer to either 'to + Infinitive' or 'who/whether/that clause'.
The structure of choice A resembles the same construction in the example from GMAT prep. Both are as follows:

Noun + make/makes + description + 'to + Infinitive' or 'who/whether/that clause'.

I saw many sentences like the following:
The bad weather in SF makes it quite difficult to work outdoors.

It also resembles the same structure of Choice A.

Where do I go wrong?

Thanks

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

heavy commitment

by GMATGuruNY » Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:07 am

Mo2men wrote:Dear Mitch,

In light of explanation above, all the cited examples are considered 'empty it', So why does 'it' in choice A not considered as 'empty it' too?

Choice A: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action................. makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.

As you you explained 'empty it' before, 'it' is always refer to either 'to + Infinitive' or 'who/whether/that clause'.
The structure of choice A resembles the same construction in the example from GMAT prep. Both are as follows:

Noun + make/makes + description + 'to + Infinitive' or 'who/whether/that clause'.

I saw many sentences like the following:
The bad weather in SF makes it quite difficult to work outdoors.

It also resembles the same structure of Choice A.

Where do I go wrong?

Thanks

The bad weather makes it difficult to work outdoors.
Here, the infinitive in blue is not immediately preceded by an agent: the sentence does not specify WHO is intended TO WORK.
The implication is that the agent for the blue infinitive is not a specific person but people IN GENERAL, as follows:
The bad weather makes it difficult [for people] to work outdoors.
Generally:
An infinitive without an agent should refer to people in general.

A: Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble.
Here, the infinitive in red is not immediately preceded by an agent.
As a result, the red infinitive should refer to people in general.
But the intended agent for the red infinitive is not people in general but AN EXECUTIVE.
For this reason, the structure is not valid.

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Mo2men: Legendary Member; Posts: 712; Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:39 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 14 times

by Mo2men » Thu Apr 11, 2019 4:36 am

GMATGuruNY wrote:
Mo2men wrote:Dear GMATGuru,
An RC passage in the OG13:
The complexity of these relationships makes it unlikely that a system of import relief laws will meet the strategic needs.
Here, the that-clause in blue serves to express the induced action.
Hi Mitch,

Thanks for your explanation

For the sentence above, where is the agent? is correct to say 'for people' here?

Thank

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:02 pm

Mo2men wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote:
Mo2men wrote:Dear GMATGuru,
An RC passage in the OG13:
The complexity of these relationships makes it unlikely that a system of import relief laws will meet the strategic needs.
Here, the that-clause in blue serves to express the induced action.
Hi Mitch,

Thanks for your explanation

For the sentence above, where is the agent? is correct to say 'for people' here?

Thank
A that-clause includes its own subject and verb and thus does not require an additional agent.
In the blue that-clause above, the subject for will meet (verb) is a system of import relief laws.
Since it is clear that A SYSTEM will meet the strategic needs, no additional agent is required.
An infinitive requires an agent so that a reader understands who or what is performing the infinitive action.

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by [email protected] » Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:25 pm

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one problem at at time, and narrow it down to the correct choice! To begin, let's take a closer look at the original question, and highlight any major differences we spot in orange:

Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.

A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.
B. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear.
C. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past.
D. Executives' being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear.
E. 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.

After a quick glance over the options, we have a few areas we can focus on. However, this is a question where the entire sentence is underlined, so we need to treat this differently than we do other questions! Whenever you see a question with the entire sentence underlined, there are a few areas you should pay attention to first to narrow down your options:

1. Modifiers
2. Parallelism
3. Meaning
4. Structure

Let's start with #3 on our list: meaning. There is also another glaring difference we see throughout each of the options: PRONOUNS! There are a LOT of pronouns in these sentences, so let's do a quick check to make sure all the pronouns have clear antecedents, and rule out any that don't:

A. Heavy commitment by an executive to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes it likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpret them when they do appear.

first "it" = refers to "course of action" --> OK
second "it" = doesn't refer to anything, so we call this a "dummy pronoun" --> WRONG
"them" = refers to "signs of incipient trouble" --> OK

B. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action, especially one that worked well in the past, makes missing signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting ones likely when they do appear.

"one" = unclear; could refer to either "An executive" or "a course of action" --> WRONG
"ones" = misleading; changes meaning from referring to "signs of incipient trouble" to some other signs we haven't mentioned yet --> WRONG

C. An executive who is heavily committed to a course of action is likely to miss or misinterpret signs of incipient trouble when they do appear, especially if it has worked well in the past.

"they" = unclear; could refer to "An executive," "a course of action," or "signs of incipient trouble" --> WRONG
"it" = refers back to "a course of action" --> OK

D. Executives' being heavily committed to a course of action, especially if it has worked well in the past, makes them likely to miss signs of incipient trouble or misinterpreting them when they do appear.

"it" = refers to "a course of action" --> OK
first "them" = refers to "Executives" --> WRONG (see below)
second "them" = refers to "signs" --> WRONG (see below)

So why are both "them" pronouns wrong? Because placing two of the same pronoun so close together is confusing to readers. It's too ambiguous which "them" is referring to which antecedent. Yes, you could do the hard work and figure it out, but reading shouldn't require the reader to do the heavy lifting.

E. 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.

"one" = refers to "a course of action" --> OK
"them" = refers to "signs of incipient trouble" --> OK

Well there you have it - option E is the correct choice! It's the only sentence that used clear pronouns.

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vietnam47: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 110; Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2018 11:19 pmFollowed by: 1 member

by vietnam47 » Sun Jul 28, 2019 12:02 am

GMATGuruNY wrote:
sachin_yadav wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote: In B, an executive...makes missing signs of incipient trouble...likely does not convey the intended meaning. It is not the EXECUTIVE himself but the COMMITMENT TO A COURSE OF ACTION that is causing the problems discussed in this SC. Eliminate B.

Thanks Mitch.

Certainly, the answer is E, and B changes the meaning of the sentence, but what about "ones" in B. Is "ones" incorrect ?

What if there were "ones" in the answer choice E, then the choice E would have been correct ?

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 ones when they do appear.

Now, I have replaced "them" with "ones". Is this correct ? ("Them" is referring to "signs", so "ones" refers to "signs")

I am confused with "ones". I believe "ones" is plural and can be used if "them" is not mentioned in the sentence. I might be wrong, but if i am wrong, then why i am wrong ?

Why "them", and why not "ones" ?

Looking forward to your reply.

Regards
Sachin
Ones is used to refer to select members of a group:

Please put the clean dishes in the cabinet and the dirty ones in the sink.

In the SC above, ones would imply that the executive is misinterpreting only a few specific signs of incipient trouble; which ONES is he misinterpreting? Since we don't know, ones is inappropriate.

I would be skeptical of an answer choice that uses ones, which seems a bit informal for the GMAT.

thank you expert.
I am confused to understand "them", "ones" and "those. can you differentiate them ?.
I think "them" refers to the same nouns mentioned before. "ones" and "those" refers to the nouns different from the nouns mentioned before. but what is the difference between "ones" and "those". pls, explain. thank you

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vietnam47: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 110; Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2018 11:19 pmFollowed by: 1 member

by vietnam47 » Sun Jul 28, 2019 2:08 am

sachin_yadav wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote: In B, an executive...makes missing signs of incipient trouble...likely does not convey the intended meaning. It is not the EXECUTIVE himself but the COMMITMENT TO A COURSE OF ACTION that is causing the problems discussed in this SC. Eliminate B.

Thanks Mitch.

Certainly, the answer is E, and B changes the meaning of the sentence, but what about "ones" in B. Is "ones" incorrect ?

What if there were "ones" in the answer choice E, then the choice E would have been correct ?

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 ones when they do appear.

Now, I have replaced "them" with "ones". Is this correct ? ("Them" is referring to "signs", so "ones" refers to "signs")

I am confused with "ones". I believe "ones" is plural and can be used if "them" is not mentioned in the sentence. I might be wrong, but if i am wrong, then why i am wrong ?

Why "them", and why not "ones" ?

Looking forward to your reply.

Regards
Sachin

your question is good for us to learn, thank you. we do not need to understand the difference between "ones' and "them" to solve this problem . however, i will pose what i know
"them" refer to the same preceding noun. "ones" refers to the different noun from the preceding noun. "ones" must be used with additional information. (pls, read "pratical english usage " or " english grammar in used, advanced" )
"those" is used to refer to the noun different from the preceding noun , can not go with adjective, and normally is used in parallel pattern.
"ones" in choice b is wrong because we must refer to the same preceding thing, "signs". second, "ones" must go with additional information.

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