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President and Its unusual Move

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President and Its unusual Move

by goelmohit2002 » Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:32 am
Hi All,

Can somebody please help me understand why [spoiler]"C" and "D"[/spoiler] are wrong in the below question. OA is [spoiler]"E"[/spoiler]. Kaplan says that since [spoiler]"E"[/spoiler] is concise so it is better. Is there any other reason why we can kick out [spoiler]"D" and "E"[/spoiler] ?

In an unusual move for a Republican, the president’s directive established price controls.

(A) the president’s directive established price controls
(B) the president’s directive was to establish price controls
(C) the president was successful in the establishment of controls on prices
(D) the president had instituted controls on prices
(E) the president established price controls

Thanks
Mohit
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by PinkBox » Sun Mar 22, 2009 5:31 pm
the word after Republican must be "president" not "president's" bc the republican is modifying president so A and B are out
C is wordy and changes the meaning of the original sentence
D is wrong bc there is no reason to use "had"...there is only one action so past tense works better here. "control on prices" is wordy price control is better
so go with E
Last edited by PinkBox on Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: President and Its unusual Move

by ken3233 » Sun Mar 22, 2009 6:37 pm
goelmohit2002 wrote:Hi All,

Can somebody please help me understand why [spoiler]"C" and "D"[/spoiler] are wrong in the below question. OA is [spoiler]"E"[/spoiler]. Kaplan says that since [spoiler]"E"[/spoiler] is concise so it is better. Is there any other reason why we can kick out [spoiler]"D" and "E"[/spoiler] ?

In an unusual move for a Republican, the president’s directive established price controls.

(A) the president’s directive established price controls
(B) the president’s directive was to establish price controls
(C) the president was successful in the establishment of controls on prices
(D) the president had instituted controls on prices
(E) the president established price controls

Thanks
Mohit
Not only is "C" wordy, but it is also logically inconsistent with the preceding clause refering to "an unusual move for a Republican." The second clause of the sentence must report what "move" the President made. Instead, the second clause reads as if the President's "move" was his "success", which doesn't quite make sense.

"D" is incorrect because (as Pinkbox writes) the past perfect tense shouldn't be used when only one past action is being reported.
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by Jatinder » Sun Mar 22, 2009 7:50 pm
@PinkBox, Please illustrate why "In an unusual move for a Republican" can't modify President's directive?

In an unusual move for a Republican is a prepositional phrase.

if we would have "Establishing unusual move, X bla bla"
then it makes sense for the X to be a person.

Please substantiate your reasoning with example.

Thanks.

Ron, Can you please comment?
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by ken3233 » Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:05 pm
Jatinder wrote:@PinkBox, Please illustrate why "In an unusual move for a Republican" can't modify President's directive?
Can a directive be a member of the Republican party? Can it run for office, give speeches, get elected, pass legislation and issue directives of its own? Of course not.

"In an unusual move for a Republican" has to modify a person, not a directive.

We're talking about a dangling modifier here.
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by ken3233 » Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:23 pm
Jatinder wrote: In an unusual move for a Republican is a prepositional phrase.

if we would have "Establishing unusual move, X bla bla"
then it makes sense for the X to be a person.
By talking about an "...unusual move for...", the sentence is referring to something that a person did. The identity of the person is clarified by "...a Republican". Thus, there is no doubt that the modifying phrase is talking about a person, and not an inanimate object (i.e., not the Republican's directive).

This link may be helpful:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/ ... ngmod.html
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by Jatinder » Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:39 pm
ken3233 wrote:
Jatinder wrote: In an unusual move for a Republican is a prepositional phrase.

if we would have "Establishing unusual move, X bla bla"
then it makes sense for the X to be a person.
By talking about an "...unusual move for...", the sentence is referring to something that a person did. The identity of the person is clarified by "...a Republican". Thus, there is no doubt that the modifying phrase is talking about a person, and not an inanimate object (i.e., not the Republican's directive).

This link may be helpful:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/ ... ngmod.html
Thanks Ken3233.
I got the right trigger.
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by goelmohit2002 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:27 am
Between "C", "D" and "E", there is a vertical split between:

"controls on prices" - used in "C" and "D".---note that "controls" is used
price controls - used in "E".---> here control is used.

Are both correct usages as per grammar....?

Can we kick out "C" and "D" based on this split ?

Thanks
Mohit
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by ken3233 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:32 am
goelmohit2002 wrote:Between "C", "D" and "E", there is a vertical split between:

"controls on prices" - used in "C" and "D".---note that "controls" is used
price controls - used in "E".---> here control is used.

Are both correct usages as per grammar....?

Can we kick out "C" and "D" based on this split ?

Thanks
Mohit
That's a good question. I'm pretty certain that both usages are grammatically correct, but that "price controls" is the better answer for reasons of concision.

Again, I'm just beginning to learn these finer points of grammar myself, so I'm not an expert.

Have you picked up a copy of MGMAT SC? It's an excellent source book. I have also found Barron's SC notes (by a guy named Jaffe) to be a good start, too. Reading these sources is tedious work, but it's worth the trouble.

https://books.google.com/books?id=S4X8aw ... q=barron's
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by PinkBox » Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:36 am
Ken cleared it up before i got a chance to respond. thanks! i couldn't have explained it better
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by goelmohit2002 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:11 pm
ken3233 wrote:
goelmohit2002 wrote:Between "C", "D" and "E", there is a vertical split between:

"controls on prices" - used in "C" and "D".---note that "controls" is used
price controls - used in "E".---> here control is used.

Are both correct usages as per grammar....?

Can we kick out "C" and "D" based on this split ?

Thanks
Mohit
That's a good question. I'm pretty certain that both usages are grammatically correct, but that "price controls" is the better answer for reasons of concision.

Again, I'm just beginning to learn these finer points of grammar myself, so I'm not an expert.

Have you picked up a copy of MGMAT SC? It's an excellent source book. I have also found Barron's SC notes (by a guy named Jaffe) to be a good start, too. Reading these sources is tedious work, but it's worth the trouble.

https://books.google.com/books?id=S4X8aw ... q=barron's
Thanks Ken.

Yes I have MGMAT SC guide. I think it's amongst the best resource for GMAT SC.

Experts please tell is "Controls on prices" and "Price controls" both gramatically correct.

Thanks
Mohit
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by pJackson79 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:53 pm
goelmohit2002 wrote: Experts please tell is "Controls on prices" and "Price controls" both gramatically correct.
I am no expert, but I think you would go with "price controls" because it is shorter and more clear.
Last edited by pJackson79 on Tue Mar 31, 2009 4:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by lunarpower » Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:15 pm
this is not a good question.

they're telling you that (e) is better than (d) because it's more concise: i.e., it uses the simple past (one word) rather than the past perfect (two words).

unfortunately, this is not how real gmat problems work.
on an official problem, if you are to choose between two verb tenses, then there will be CONTEXT that enables you to determine that one of the tenses is INCORRECT, not just "less concise".

this problem sets a VERY dangerous precedent, in that it will probably convince some of you that the best criterion for choosing a verb tense is concision. that's simply not true: if CONTEXT dictates that, say, you should choose the past perfect over the simple past, then you must do so.

examples:

although james had never run a marathon, he finished the boston marathon in under three hours. --> correct. you must use the past perfect "had never run", because the relevance of this statement terminates at james's running of the boston marathon.

although james never ran a marathon, he finished the boston marathon in under three hours. --> incorrect. not only is "never ran" in the wrong tense, but this sentence actually contradicts itself (by simultaneously saying that james never ran a marathon and that he finished the boston marathon).

the second of these, which is more concise, is ... wrong.
period.

--

on an official problem, you will not be forced to choose between verb tenses in otherwise correct sentences based on concision.

bad.
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by goelmohit2002 » Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:00 pm
lunarpower wrote: on an official problem, you will not be forced to choose between verb tenses in otherwise correct sentences based on concision.

bad.
Thanks Ron for clearing the doubts.Can you please tell
a) should we ignore this question...or
b) as fellow members suggested above for kicking out "C" and "D" sound convincing to you too.
c) or you think there might be some better reasons to kick out "C" and "D".

Kindly give your opinion about "controls on prices" and "price controls" split too.

Thanks
Mohit
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by TedCornell » Tue Mar 24, 2009 11:28 pm
Actually, there is plenty of context here to determine that the past perfect "had instituted" is wrong and this split could very well be on an official GMAT question.

Pinky did a fantastic job of explaining. This sentence has only one conjugated verb (instute/establish). The past perfect is not appropriate because this verb does not express the first of two past actions.

(I study with OG, MGMAT SC and GMATFix Verbal Flashcards)
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