both draining company resources

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both draining company resources

by alivapriyada » Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:44 am
Unsolicited electronic junk mail, also termed spam, has hurt companies by both draining company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing employee productivity.

A. both draining company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing employee productivity

B. draining both company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing employee productivity

C. draining both company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing how productive its employees are

D. both draining company resources used to combat the problem and the productivity of employees is diminished

E. both draining company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing how productive its employees are
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by gmat_perfect » Fri Sep 24, 2010 10:31 am
alivapriyada wrote:Unsolicited electronic junk mail, also termed spam, has hurt companies by both draining company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing employee productivity.

A. both draining company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing employee productivity

B. draining both company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing employee productivity

C. draining both company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing how productive its employees are

D. both draining company resources used to combat the problem and the productivity of employees is diminished

E. both draining company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing how productive its employees are

Both X and Y, where X and Y MUST be grammatically parallel.

Answer is A.

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by arpita@gurome » Fri Sep 24, 2010 10:36 am
alivapriyada wrote:Unsolicited electronic junk mail, also termed spam, has hurt companies by both draining company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing employee productivity.

A. both draining company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing employee productivity

B. draining both company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing employee productivity

C. draining both company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing how productive its employees are

D. both draining company resources used to combat the problem and the productivity of employees is diminished

E. both draining company resources used to combat the problem and diminishing how productive its employees are
As soon as we see, "both", two things should come to mind, most probably this will have an "and" somewhere in the sentence and the two parts should be parallel.

Let us look at the answer choices:
A - Looks good. "Both .... and" present and parallel "draining" and "diminishing". Keep
B - Not parallel. This seems parallel but remember only the part after "both" or "and" should be parallel, part before and are applicable to both the parallel parts. Thus it would read as - draining company resources ......... and draining diminishing employee......
C - same as B
D - not parallel
E - is a good choice, parallelism holds. Keep

Contenders are A and E.
E loses out on conciseness and it is a bit awkward as a sentence due to the "are" at the end.

[spoiler]Choose A[/spoiler]

Hope this helps
Arpita Sen
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Gurome, Inc.
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by niksworth » Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:04 am
Additionally, E is not perfectly parallel.

Look closely at the parallel elements in E.
1) draining company resources used to combat the problem
2) diminishing how productive its employees are

in 1, the gerund is followed by a noun phrase while in 2, the gerund is followed by a noun clause.
scio me nihil scire

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by alivapriyada » Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:57 am
many thanks to you guys!!!

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by mundasingh123 » Fri Sep 24, 2010 1:03 pm
alivapriyada wrote:many thanks to you guys!!!
what is the source of this quest.

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by alivapriyada » Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:29 pm
mundasingh123 wrote:
alivapriyada wrote:many thanks to you guys!!!
what is the source of this quest.
have replied to your PM,please check it.
BTW its from MGMAT

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