In 1791 Robert Carter III, one of

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In 1791 Robert Carter III, one of

by fiza gupta » Thu Dec 08, 2016 4:14 am
In 1791 Robert Carter III, one of the wealthiest plantation owners in Virginia, stunned his family, friends, and neighbors by filing a deed of emancipation, setting free the more than 500 slaves who were legally considered his property.

(A) setting free the more than 500 slaves who were legally considered
(B) setting free more than the 500 slaves legally considered as
(C) and set free more than 500 slaves, who were legally considered as
(D) and set free more than the 500 slaves who were legally considered
(E) and he set free the more than 500 slaves who were legally considered as

Official Answer: A
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by Ali Tariq » Wed Jan 04, 2017 5:13 am
incorrect idiom in BCE ( considered as, just memorize it. It has appeared in many instances in official material )

A vs D

and signals parallelism.
parallelism has two aspects
i)structure
ii)logic.

Both aspects need to be satisfied.
in D, while structure is parallel, logic is not.
ans is A

in C, non essential modifier is also problematic.
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by fiza gupta » Fri Jan 27, 2017 4:36 am
@Ali Sir,

Actually i am getting confused...
logically D is wrong but

In Option A
In 1791 Robert Carter III, one of the wealthiest plantation owners in Virginia, stunned his family, friends, and neighbors by filing a deed of emancipation, setting free the more than 500 slaves who were legally considered his property.

filling and setting here should act parallel and need "and" before setting

what i am comprehending is "how Robert Cater stunned is family => by filling a deed and setting free"

But we cannot question Official answer so why A is correct and where i am going wrong
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by GMATGuruNY » Fri Jan 27, 2017 5:26 am
fiza gupta wrote:@Ali Sir,

Actually i am getting confused...
logically D is wrong but

In Option A
In 1791 Robert Carter III, one of the wealthiest plantation owners in Virginia, stunned his family, friends, and neighbors by filing a deed of emancipation, setting free the more than 500 slaves who were legally considered his property.

filling and setting here should act parallel and need "and" before setting

what i am comprehending is "how Robert Cater stunned is family => by filling a deed and setting free"

But we cannot question Official answer so why A is correct and where i am going wrong
Generally, COMMA + VERBing serves to express an action that happens AT THE SAME TIME AS or AS A RESULT OF the nearest preceding action.
OA: Robert Carter III stunned his family by filing a deed of emancipation, setting free the more than 500 slaves who were legally considered his property.
Here, COMMA + setting serves to refer to filing (the nearest preceding action).
Conveyed meaning:
When Robert Carter III was FILING a deed of emancipation, he was -- at the same time -- SETTING free more than 500 slaves.
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by Ali Tariq » Fri Jan 27, 2017 5:40 pm
fiza gupta wrote: In Option A
In 1791 Robert Carter III, one of the wealthiest plantation owners in Virginia, stunned his family, friends, and neighbors by filing a deed of emancipation, setting free the more than 500 slaves who were legally considered his property.

filling and setting here should act parallel and need "and" before setting

what i am comprehending is "how Robert Cater stunned is family => by filling a deed and setting free"

But we cannot question Official answer so why A is correct and where i am going wrong
Long story cut short

filing and setting represent cause and effect relationship, which
only and ,
only comma,
or
comma and (,and)

cannot serve to represent.
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by Ali Tariq » Fri Jan 27, 2017 5:47 pm
Long story not cut short : )

As parallelism is very important concept in SC and thus needs to be assimilated thoroughly, I will not only address your query but also try to elucidate the point as clearly as possible that this particular SC is trying to make.

I believe that there is only one takeaway from this SC viz-a-viz parallelism and thus you cannot afford to ignore it.

In 1791 Robert Carter III, one of the wealthiest plantation owners in Virginia, stunned his family, friends, and neighbors by filing a deed of emancipation, setting free the more than 500 slaves who were legally considered his property.

(A) setting free the more than 500 slaves who were legally considered

(D) and set free more than the 500 slaves who were legally considered

These two answer choices differentiate only on ONE concept: Which two components need to be parallel to each other as dictated by context. Context dictates whether stunned and set need to be parallel to each other or filing and setting need to be parallel to each other.

It is one of those SC questions in which three answer choices are easy to eliminate( BCE in this case ) while remaining two will be tricky as grammatically there will be NO ERROR: Both A and D have NO GRAMMATICAL ERROR(S) .However, there cannot be two correct answer choices in GMAT SC. Therefore, there got to be something else we have to be aware of, something that has NOTHING to do with GRAMMAR.
In GMAT SC, not only GRAMMAR but also MEANING is a thing.
If an issue is not in the domain of grammar then it will DEFINETLY will be in the domain of MEANING
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by Ali Tariq » Fri Jan 27, 2017 5:57 pm
continued...


A)Robert stunned his family by filing a deed of emancipation, setting free 500 slaves.
D)Robert stunned his family by filing a deed of emancipation, and set free 500 slaves.

To help you get the MEANING, lets have a look what actually is happening here.
Note these choices have been reduced to the core necessary to get to the correct answer.


Robert stunned his family by filing a deed of emancipation, setting free 500 slaves.

What actually is happening here?

by filing a deed of emancipation modifies Robert stunned his family
and
setting free 500 slaves modifies filing a deed of emancipation.
Comma verbing generally modifies last action.
Last action (in terms of proximity) is " filing a deed of emancipation"
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by Ali Tariq » Fri Jan 27, 2017 5:59 pm
Robert stunned his family.

How? How he stunned his family?

by filing a deed of emancipation
"By filing a deed of emancipation" Robert stunned his family.
"filing a deed of emancipation" is something Robert did and that act stunned his family.
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by Ali Tariq » Fri Jan 27, 2017 6:04 pm
With that background, lets move TO YOUR CONFUSION


Tell

IS there any relationship between filing a deed of emancipation and setting up of free 500 slaves?
[spoiler]YES![/spoiler]

WHAT is that relationship?
It is Cause and Effect relationship.

filing a deed of emancipation is cause.
setting free 500 slaves is effect.

What was the EFFECT of that act(filing a deed of emancipation) ?
500 slaves were set free because of the act of "filing a deed of emancipation" by Robert.

Can "comma verbing" show CAUSE and EFFECT relationship?
[spoiler]YES![/spoiler]
Is there any condition that needs to be met?
[spoiler]YES!
There cannot be TIME SHIFT (mostly it is time delay)[/spoiler]

Is there Cause and Effect relationship in this particular case?
[spoiler]YES![/spoiler]
Is there any time delay/ time shift between cause and effect?
[spoiler]NO![/spoiler]
PERFECT way to communicate the MEANING ,which is dictated by CONTEXT.
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by Ali Tariq » Fri Jan 27, 2017 6:11 pm
You were saying that these two actions are parallel (whereas from context they are cause and effect respectively) and as these two actions are parallel, there should be and TO SHOW parallelism (comma cannot show parallelism).

Further, in OA there is no and and ,thus, it can be an editing error on part of GMAC or there must be some insight that you are unaware of and hence are confused.
Right? that is what you have in your mind.

If two concepts/ messages/ situations are separated by and (regardless of they being structurally parallel) AND if there is no adverb after and (as is the case here), it essentially means that these two concepts/ messages/ situations have NO RELATIONSHIP between them whatsoever.
i.e, these two concepts/ messages/ situations are independent of each other.
Each can have its existence without other being there.
However in CAUSE and EFFECT relationship, EFFECT CAN NEVER exist without CAUSE.
i.e, EFFECT is dependent on CAUSE and not independent of CAUSE.
No CAUSE No EFFECT.

CAUSE and EFFECT relationship cannot be represented by and alone.
If you have to show cause and effect relationship using and, then there must be an appropriate adverb somewhere after and to establish this relationship, adverb such as therefore, thus, consequently, etc or phrases such as as a result, etc

P.S:
Note
and subsequently
and then
have nothing to do with cause and effect relationship.
They just emphasize sequence of events.
Last edited by Ali Tariq on Sat Jan 28, 2017 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by Ali Tariq » Fri Jan 27, 2017 6:18 pm
what i am comprehending is "how Robert Cater stunned is family => by filling a deed and setting free"
Your version technically:
Robert stunned his family by filing a deed of emancipation, and setting free 500 slaves

As per your understanding, which stems from the above stated version, filling and setting are parallel to each other.

And signals parallelism.
There is no adverb after and
Which means that these two concepts/ messages/ situations are independent of each other and thus have no relationship between them.
Each can have its existence without other being there.

However, there is a relationship, relationship of cause and effect.
Robert stunned his family by filing a deed of emancipation, setting free 500 slaves
Robert stunned his family.
How?
by filing a deed of emancipation

Effect? Effect of the act of "filing a deed of emancipation" ?
Slaves were set free because of the act of filing a deed of emancipation

Clearly the sentence in this form,
Robert stunned his family by filing a deed of emancipation, and setting free 500 slaves
Does not show cause and effect relationship between
filing a deed of emancipation and setting free (of) 500 slaves.
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by Ali Tariq » Fri Jan 27, 2017 6:22 pm
Further, note comma before and , comma outside the underlined portion.

Robert stunned his family by filing a deed of emancipation, and setting free 500 slaves
Had this been the case, there would have been no comma before and and as parallel components are close to each other there is no ambiguity that needs to be gotton rid of
(,and separate clauses. , and also removes ambiguity: neither case here)*

Logic part of parallelism is an important concept but I believe along with it, something minor will always be there as a clue.
Where to watch out for clues?
4 areas/spots are important to scan in GMAT SC for clues as per my own observation and insight developed over a period of time:
1) just before underlined portion
2) first word of underlined portion
3) last word of underlined portion
4) just after underlined portion


In this SC, among 5 answer choices, you have valid split in 2 out of four above mentioned spots, and a clue just before underlined portion, clue enough to get to the correct answer.

presence of comma (just before underlined portion)
setting vs and set (first word of underlined portion)
considered vs considered as (last word of underlined portion)

* exceptions applied
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by Ali Tariq » Fri Jan 27, 2017 6:28 pm
Takeaway from the entire discussion:

filing and setting represent cause and effect relationship, which
only and ,
only comma,
or
only comma and
(without appropriate adverb/ phrase)
cannot serve to represent.
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by fiza gupta » Tue Feb 21, 2017 6:33 am
Thanku so much Ali and Mitch Sir,
your explanation helped allot :)
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