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by mundasingh123 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 6:05 am
The supply of oil being finite has become an economical and political consideration of the first magnitude for all modern industrial nations.

(A) The supply of oil being finite has become an economical
(B) The finite supply of oil has become an economical
(C) That the supply of oil is finite has become an economical
(D) The supply of oil being finite has become an economic
(E) That the supply of oil is finite has become an economic

Can someone explain fow do we distinguish between D and E ? That the answer has to be with economic can be anyones guess.
Cant post OA . Responders will be biased
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by ov25 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 6:20 am
imo E.

In this context, consideration is better described using 'economic'. 'That' is required to the begin as it provides a handler to the clause and well as behaves as a subject to the sentence.
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by shovan85 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 6:27 am
mundasingh123 wrote:The supply of oil being finite has become an economical and political consideration of the first magnitude for all modern industrial nations.

(A) The supply of oil being finite has become an economical
(B) The finite supply of oil has become an economical
(C) That the supply of oil is finite has become an economical
(D) The supply of oil being finite has become an economic
(E) That the supply of oil is finite has become an economic
If something is economical, it saves money or resources. It's similar in meaning to "not wasteful".
An economical car uses a minimum amount of gasoline (petrol) to drive a maximum number of miles (kilometers).

The word economic is related to the economy or finances, money matters, or wealth.
There was a rise in unemployment due to the economic downturn.

Thus as per above usage it is bound to be ECONOMIC.

In D, "being" is the suspect.

in E, That the supply of oil is finite has become an economic and political consideration of the first magnitude for all modern industrial nations.

Although "that" gives a sense of subordinate clause, the usage is correct I believe. So, E is correct.
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by mundasingh123 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 7:01 am
Both of u are rejecting D because of "being " .Please provide a grammatical explanation."being" here doesnt make the sentence awkward.
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by rishab1988 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 8:11 am
D is wrong because it is not concise.It uses an additional word being ( we use being only when it adds some meaning to the sentence or when other sentences are grammatically wrong).

MGMAT SC guide says when two answer choices are grammatically correct choose a more concise and clear one.

Besides,being is almost always a signal of awkwardness.Correct answer choices will almost never contain being unless it is absolutely necessary.

For eg: Being rich is not everybody's dream. (here being adds meaning to the sentence)

You can't omit being and say : rich is not everybody's dream

Other situations where being could be correct are when the only choice that follows ||ism contains being and no other choice uses ||ism correctly.

In this question the present tense is already conveyed by has become ( it means at present).Why would you use being to convey the same meaning?

As to reason why E is correct:

That the supply of oil is finite has become an economic and political consideration of the first magnitude for all modern industrial nations.

That the supply of oil is finite - is a noun clause.By definition noun clauses are singular.So it uses correct verb (has become).

Similar eg: What is difficult to understand is how this is the correct answer.

This is an IC and correct.

What is difficult to understand - noun clause (subject here); is-verb.
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by mundasingh123 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 8:31 am
Thanks rishab for the reply but
In D, being does provide a reason why the supply of oil has become an economic condieration of the first order.It is giving some meaning.
BTW E is the OA.but in this case i am still looking for a better reason to eliminate D.
BTW can you explain exactly how do we determine whether a clause is a noun clause?
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by rishab1988 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 9:07 am
You asked for more concrete reason.

Look at choices C and E and A,B and D.See the split The supply of oil being finite (in A and D).

You know the rule that subjects must go logically with verbs?

Here in A,B, and D the subject is supply (and not the fact that oil supply is limited ,as in C and E). Can you say the supply has become an economic and political consideration? It is illogical.

You can say limited supply/finite supply of oil has become an economic and political and economic consideration.Supply in itself cannot be an economic and political consideration.

For eg. You can say : Short supply of water has become a headache for local authorities.
But not : Supply of water has become a headache for local authorities.

Also,being finite is misplaced,because it is modifying oil (the object of the preposition of). Finite should modify supply and not oil;otherwise,the meaning of sentence changes.

Whereas in C and E the subject is the entire clause,as previously mentioned.

Noun clauses typically begin with What and that. By definition what is a clause? A clause contains a subject and a verb. A noun clause contains its own subject and a verb but it is treated as a single entity (subject).
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by mundasingh123 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 9:33 am
The example that you gave is different from the one discussed here.
The given sentence discusses consideration and the one you have given has "headache".Now obviously depends on context and the rules do have exceptions.

As for 'the supply of oil has become an important consideration ",I did think of this point before but i thought it could be overruled. i think its better to confirm it with an expert.
I agree with you on the point that a noun modifier should be as close as possible to the subject it modifies.But there have been exceptions in cases where you have the X of Y structure.
For example
The box of roses which i had given you is to be saved for christmas.
The box of roses that were white in colour has to be kept in the drawer.
However there are no ambiguities here because of the singula/plural context.
Anyways thanks for your inputs.
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:16 am
mundasingh123 wrote:The supply of oil being finite has become an economical and political consideration of the first magnitude for all modern industrial nations.

(A) The supply of oil being finite has become an economical
(B) The finite supply of oil has become an economical
(C) That the supply of oil is finite has become an economical
(D) The supply of oil being finite has become an economic
(E) That the supply of oil is finite has become an economic

Can someone explain fow do we distinguish between D and E ? That the answer has to be with economic can be anyones guess.
Cant post OA . Responders will be biased
Quickest approach:

In A, B and C, economical (definition: giving good value) does not convey the intended meaning of the sentence. The correct word is economic (definition: relating to the economy). Eliminate A, B and C.

In D, the subject supply is incorrect because it does not convey the intended meaning of the sentence. The supply itself has not become an economic and political consideration; that the supply...is finite has become an economic and political consideration. Eliminate D.

The correct answer is E.
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by mundasingh123 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:25 am
GMATGuruNY wrote:
mundasingh123 wrote:The supply of oil being finite has become an economical and political consideration of the first magnitude for all modern industrial nations.
Quickest approach:

In D, the subject supply is incorrect because it does not convey the intended meaning of the sentence. The supply itself has not become an economic and political consideration; that the supply...is finite has become and economic and political consideration. Eliminate D.

The correct answer is E.
Mitch, thanks for the reply.Do u mean to say that a noun can not be a consideration.The idea associated with the noun can only become a consideration .Can we apply this to all the cases ?
1)His marks being poor have become a (consideration /cause of worry) for his parents.
2)His poor marks have become a (consideration /cause of worry) for his parents.
So the first sentence is wrong.
Thanks a lot Mitch for confirmin
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:36 am
mundasingh123 wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote:
mundasingh123 wrote:The supply of oil being finite has become an economical and political consideration of the first magnitude for all modern industrial nations.
Quickest approach:

In D, the subject supply is incorrect because it does not convey the intended meaning of the sentence. The supply itself has not become an economic and political consideration; that the supply...is finite has become and economic and political consideration. Eliminate D.

The correct answer is E.
Mitch, thanks for the reply.Do u mean to say that a noun can not be a consideration.The idea associated with the noun can only become a consideration .Can we apply this to all the cases ?
1)His marks being poor have become a (consideration /cause of worry) for his parents.
2)His poor marks have become a (consideration /cause of worry) for his parents.
So the first sentence is wrong.
Thanks a lot Mitch for confirmin
Sentence 1 does not convey the intended meaning: the cause of worry is not the marks themselves but the poorness of his marks. For sentence 1 to convey the intended meaning, it would have to say:

His marks' being poor has become a cause of worry.

In the sentence above, the subject is not the marks themselves but their being poor. (The possessive his marks' is an adjective modifying the gerund construction being poor.) While the intended meaning is now being correctly conveyed, the sentence above is so awkward that it would never be the correct answer on the GMAT. In general, we should avoid the construction noun + being or possessive + being. Such constructions are unlikely to be used in the correct answer choice.
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by mundasingh123 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:48 am
Then Mitch, does it mean that grammatically speaking there is nothing wrong with sentence 1 except for the being part , only that it does not convey the intended meaning of the sentence , hence the modification of noun + being to noun + gerund form .
This affirms what rishabh was trying to say
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:00 am
mundasingh123 wrote:Then Mitch, does it mean that grammatically speaking there is nothing wrong with sentence 1 except for the being part , only that it does not convey the intended meaning of the sentence , hence the modification of noun + being to noun + gerund form .
This affirms what rishabh was trying to say
Yes, the problem with sentence 1 is the modifier being poor. It would be grammatically correct to say:

His marks have become a cause of worry.

or

His marks, poor as they are, have become a cause of worry.
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by mundasingh123 » Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:10 am
Thanks a lot Mitch , for clarifying the nuances. I always copy down the posts with ur replies as notes.
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