In the mid-1920’s the Hawthorne Works

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In the mid-1920's the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company was the scene of an intensive series of experiments that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance.

(A) that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance
(B) investigating the effects that changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance
(C) for investigating what are the effects in workers' performance that changes in working conditions would cause
(D) that investigated changes in working conditions' effects on workers' performance
(E) to investigate what the effects changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance

[spoiler]B vs E.....which one is better and why????[/spoiler]

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by HSPA » Sat Apr 16, 2011 7:35 am
B vs E.. B > E
First take: 640 (50M, 27V) - RC needs 300% improvement
Second take: coming soon..
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by jats » Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:51 am
The scene... that would investigate makes A and D wrong? since it is the series of experients that would help us investigate.

Please provide the correct answer.

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by Chaitanya_1986 » Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:41 am
In the mid-1920's the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company was the scene of an intensive series of experiments that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance.

(A) that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance
(B) investigating the effects that changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance
(C) for investigating what are the effects in workers' performance that changes in working conditions would cause
(D) that investigated changes in working conditions' effects on workers' performance
(E) to investigate what the effects changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance

Experiments will not investigate them selves ........ SO A and D are wrong
now we are b/w B,C,E....Out of which B have particple and E have infinitive.....In general we use infinitive for futuristic things ....since this had happened in mid of 1920's so E is wrong.....

Now it should be b/e B or C , but C is wrong because it changes the meaning........Changes in workers condition would effect the performance....not the effects in workers performance would be.........

So the Answer for this Question is B.....

Please give Correct Answer for this Question

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by aspirant2011 » Sun Apr 17, 2011 8:15 am
yup the answer is B..........

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by nitin9003 » Sun Apr 17, 2011 8:43 am
to investigate what the effects changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance

I think in E the line what the effects has some problem or it is wordy u can say

so B wins.

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by bubbliiiiiiii » Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:37 am
(B) investigating the effects that changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance
More precise and clear.

(E) to investigate what the effects changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance
Is wordy and awkward.

B vs E.....which one is better and why
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by kisna_428 » Tue May 06, 2014 5:32 pm
Is B not suggesting that experiments themselves are investing ? By the word order of "experiments investigating"

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by tathastuGMAT » Sun May 11, 2014 6:59 am
Here we have to cope with a timing issue. The correct sentence has to highlight events in a

logical chronological order.

Sentence starts telling us that the events unfold in 1920. Since "would" expresses uncertainty,

suggesting that we have to put ourselves chronologically slightly before the events'

happening, at a time in which we don't know yet the results.

A) as is used to: 1) compare items 2) present examples (such as) 3) identify a role

(as physician, as engineer) 4) to replace while (to show that two events happen

simultaneously) 5) to present a reason. The use of as in this context is pointless, "such

as", presenting an example of investigated changes, would have worked out If the

sentence had featured it.

B) Works out perfectly.

C) "For investigating" is a wrong. For should be followed by a noun, a pronoun or a

present participle functioning as noun or as adjective preceding a noun. "investigate" is

a transitive verb and its noun form is "investigation" its adjective form is investigative.

D) Meaning issue seems to indicate that the effects have changed but the conditions

have not. Also "investigated" is not consistent with our temporal interpretation of the

sentence.

E) Grammatically wrong. "what" is redundant. "investigate X" is better than "investigate

what X is"

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by e-GMAT » Tue May 13, 2014 3:32 pm
kisna_428 wrote:Is B not suggesting that experiments themselves are investing ? By the word order of "experiments investigating"
Hi kisna_428,

You pose an interesting question. Basically choice B,suggesting that the experiments themselves are investigating something, communicates correct meaning.

Let's take a similar example:

The results were derived from studies analyzing the incomes of various age groups.

Here, we may ask a similar question to yours: how can studies analyze something?

However, the implied meaning is that the studies were used by someone to analyze something. In other words, we can say the following:

Economists conducted studies that analyzed incomes of various age groups.

Similarly, in the question in discussion, the experiments were used by somebody to investigate something.

I hope this helps ! :-)

Regards,
Meghna