Subordinating Conjunctions....

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Subordinating Conjunctions....

by imskpwr » Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:23 am
I read in one of the OG explanation that "since" is a weaker causal subordinator than "because".

Common subordinators that show a causal relationship are: because, since, so that, in order that, as if

If possible, can anyone explain which among these are commonly used in GMAT and what is their order/hierarchy with respect to the causal relationship ?
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by Jim@StratusPrep » Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:16 am
Just going to be honest here... There are likely much bigger issues with the sentence that you should be focusing on. Happy to look more closely at the problem if you give some info. Just as a reference though, here is a list of conjunctions that may be used:

Cause
as
because
in order that
since
so that

Concession and Comparison
although
as
as though
even though
just as
though
whereas
while

Condition
even if
if
in case
provided that
unless

Place
where
wherever

Time
after
as soon as
as long as
before
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by imskpwr » Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:22 am
Thanks JIM for the prompt reply.

In OG12 Problem No.1: As per the explanation given against option D, "Since" loses the important causal logic of the sentence.

Thus,
It can be inferred here that "because" is more strong "causal connector" than "Since"

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by Jim@StratusPrep » Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:43 am
The reason A,B, and C are wrong is because you need a pronoun that refers to James Cook (he is the one who named the mountains).

Then looking at D and E you only need to focus on the it vs. them. Since, mountains are plural, D (them) is correct.
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by imskpwr » Mon Jan 23, 2012 11:39 am
Jim,

You are not getting me. In OG explanation of Q-1, It is mentioned that "Since" loses the important causal logic of the sentence" in Option D.

I will be happy, If you can check with respect to this particular point only.

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by Jim@StratusPrep » Mon Jan 23, 2012 12:32 pm
My point is more to look at what is most important in the question and in getting the SC questions correct. I have taught this stuff for several years and taken the exam myself and would never focus on that as a point of interest. Focus on the big picture with these questions and not the nuanced detail - this is how you will get more questions correct. Hope this helps some.
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by imskpwr » Tue Jan 24, 2012 8:53 am
Even if this difference is very subtle, I still want to know as it was given in an official explanation.

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by lunarpower » Thu Jan 26, 2012 4:12 am
imskpwr wrote:Even if this difference is very subtle, I still want to know as it was given in an official explanation.
unfortunately, a small percentage of the og explanations are actually wrong. for instance, the og explanation of #77 identifies a certain structure as parallel when, in fact, it's not a parallel structure at all (the fact that both parts are infinitives is just a coincidence).
looking at the official guide, you can definitely tell that GMAC employs its less able writers to create the answer explanations, while its best people are clearly writing the questions (which almost never have any issues). this situation is clearly preferable to the reverse -- it would be horrible if the questions themselves have these problems -- but it's still unfortunate.

here's a GMAT PREP problem in which the correct answer uses "since" to mean "because":
https://www.beatthegmat.com/gold-t10765.html
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by lunarpower » Thu Jan 26, 2012 4:14 am
also, i want to give a strong endorsement to what jim is saying above -- do not try to learn everything in SC. as the old saying goes, if you try for everything, you'll get nothing.

in fact, if you can master just the following five subjects --
meaning of the sentence
parallelism
pronouns
subject-verb agreement
modifiers
-- then you will already be able to solve something like 80-90 percent of all the problems in SC. that's a high enough percentage to earn you whatever score you might want; the other 10-20 percent really doesn't matter very much.
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