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Proponents

by jain2016 » Mon Feb 15, 2016 8:53 am
According to its proponents, a proposed new style of aircraft could, by skimming along the top of the atmosphere, fly between most points on earth in under two hours.


A) According to its proponents, a proposed new style of aircraft could, by skimming along the top of the atmosphere, fly between most points on earth in under two hours.

B) By skimming along the top of the atmosphere, proponents of a proposed new style aircraft say it could fly between most points on earth in under two hours.

C) A proposed new style of aircraft could fly between most points on earth in under two hours, according to its proponents, with it skimming along the top of the atmosphere.

D) A proposed new style of aircraft, say its proponents, could fly between most points on earth in uner two hours because of its skimming along the top of the atmosphere.

E) According to its proponents, skimming along the top of the atmosphere makes it possible that a proposed new style of aircraft could fly between most points on earth in under two hours.

OAA

Hi Experts ,

Please explain.

Thanks in advance.

SJ
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by fabiocafarelli » Tue Feb 16, 2016 3:12 am
1. If you concentrate on the main information in the given sentence, you will see that it has a logical and grammatically-correct structure. According to somebody, a certain aircraft could fly between certain places within a certain time. And it could do this by skimming along the top of the atmosphere. So this option looks good.

2. Option B begins with a misplaced modifier. The phrase By skimming along the top of the atmosphere is placed illogically next to PROPONENTS, thus converting PROPONENTS into the subject of the present participle SKIMMING. Clearly, the intended meaning is that the AIRCRAFT is skimming, not the PROPONENTS.

3. In option C, the preposition WITH is badly used. This is a common error in the GMAT. WITH has got to refer to some kind of accompaniment or combination: it should not be used lazily to make loose or illusory connections, as it is here. What exactly is WITH the aircraft? This remains completely unclear.

4. Option D expresses the intended idea ineffectively: that the aircraft could fly between certain places because of its skimming along the top of the atmosphere. Because of its skimming would be much better expressed as BY SKIMMING. (There is also a meaning change here: the given sentence uses BY SKIMMING and so refers to how the aircraft could fly between the points mentioned, whereas this option uses BECAUSE OF and so refers to why the aircraft could fly between those points.)

5. Option E also begins with a misplaced modifier: According to its proponents, skimming ... SKIMMING is a gerund here - a present participle used as a noun - and the beginning of the option is therefore referring to the proponents of SKIMMING, and not to those of the AIRCRAFT. This is not consistent with the intended meaning of the sentence, as expressed in option A.

6. Option A is therefore the best answer.

I'd be interested to know the source of this question. Some of the ideas are sloppily expressed, even in the correct answer. Proponents who propose is hardly good writing.

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by KarenVH » Tue Feb 16, 2016 11:53 am
This is question #60 from the Official Guide Verbal Review 2016. I agree that it's sloppily worded, though -- unusually so for official material. My complaint about it is that it has a new *style* skimming along the top of the atmosphere. There are other SC types for which that sort of usage would be considered too sloppy -- e.g. a sentence saying "the newly-observed star is a type" would be rejected in favor of "the newly-observed star is *of* a type." Yet here, they have a style, rather than an aircraft, skimming along the top of the atmosphere.

However, that flaw makes this question a good illustration of the point "Don't reject something that you think sounds awkward if all 5 choices have the same problem." In other words, we can see that the GMAC writers didn't think that there was a problem with "style of aircraft," because all 5 choices have it. So then it's a matter of eliminating the choices that have other errors.

As noted by Fabio, B has the proponents skimming along the top of the atmosphere. C has "with it skimming," which makes it unclear what the relationship is between skimming and flying between points in under two hours. D also makes the connection unclear -- "because of" is not a good way to describe a technique, which should be described with "by VERB-ing." E makes things even muddier by making it unclear exactly who or what is doing this skimming that makes something possible. In other words, "skimming along the top of the atmosphere" is now the subject of the sentence, but the sentence doesn't state precisely who is doing the skimming. Moreover, it now sounds as if "its proponents" are proponents of skimming along the top of the atmosphere rather than proponents of an aircraft design.

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