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Milking Cows - Uber Tough One

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Milking Cows - Uber Tough One

by uwhusky » Mon Aug 23, 2010 5:45 pm
For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2275 gallons of milk each year.

A. providing them with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
B. providing them with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
C. provided with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
D. provided with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
E. provided with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cows will produce

Source: GMAT Prep

[spoiler]OA: E

This question made me cry, and I thought you guys might want to share my sorrow. Stacey did offer a great approach to this question, so let me know if you want to read her approach. [/spoiler]
Yep.
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by deepshi291 » Mon Aug 23, 2010 6:55 pm
Oh this is a v tough question.
Pls provide Stacey's explanation

Thanks
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by uwhusky » Mon Aug 23, 2010 8:29 pm
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/sc- ... -t615.html.

I actually found Ron's explanation as well: https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/for ... t7058.html.

Indian trap =).
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by paes » Mon Aug 23, 2010 10:03 pm
I rejected E in first reading itself.
True, It made me cry.

I can't solve this question on exam day.
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by jaiti » Tue Aug 24, 2010 7:01 am
The way I solved this was by looking at the very first few words of the sentence that weren't underlined. "For the farmer who takes care of them". I interpreted that as IF farmer does what he is supposed to do, He WILL reap the rewards. So future tense is needed, and E is the only one that has it.
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by uwhusky » Tue Aug 24, 2010 7:12 am
I would be little more cautious than simply apply a 4:1 split, considering the amount of such split that actually exist.
Yep.
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by jaiti » Tue Aug 24, 2010 7:17 am
Oh yeah I agree with you. Its just with this one it worked out that's all.
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by tomada » Tue Aug 24, 2010 12:03 pm
Since "...keep them cool" uses the plural, I eliminated 'B' and 'D', as each choice refers to an individual cow, rather than the plural "cows".

Essentially, we're given to the answer to the following question:

Question: "In what state(s) should farmers keep their Holstein cows in order to increase production?"

Answer:
(1) cool
(2) provided with high-energy feed
(3) milked regularly

All three describe how the Holstein cows should be kept in order to increase production.

I eliminated 'C' because "provided with high energy feed" and "milking them regularly" are not parallel.

I eliminated 'A' because "...are producing" is inconsistent with "For the farmer who takes care to keep..."

The opening phrase is tantamount to saying that if the farmer does the following three things, then something will happen as a result of doing those things. This means that "will produce" is superior to "are producing".
I'm really old, but I'll never be too old to become more educated.
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by FightWithGMAT » Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:20 am
uwhusky wrote:For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2275 gallons of milk each year.

A. providing them with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
B. providing them with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
C. provided with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
D. provided with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
E. provided with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cows will produce

Source: GMAT Prep

[spoiler]OA: E

This question made me cry, and I thought you guys might want to share my sorrow. Stacey did offer a great approach to this question, so let me know if you want to read her approach. [/spoiler]
Good one!!

This is something new for us. I have not seen such a concept being tested by GMAT.
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by gmat_perfect » Tue Sep 21, 2010 9:44 pm
uwhusky wrote:For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2275 gallons of milk each year.

A. providing them with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
B. providing them with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
C. provided with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
D. provided with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
E. provided with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cows will produce

Source: GMAT Prep

[spoiler]OA: E

This question made me cry, and I thought you guys might want to share my sorrow. Stacey did offer a great approach to this question, so let me know if you want to read her approach. [/spoiler]
I thought in the following ways:

1. Keep them cool:--indicates there are more than one cows.

---> This kills B and D.

2. Providing them and milking them regularly, Cows....----> what does this mean?

--> it means that the cows are milking them. It is one of the misreadings. if anyone reads in this way, then the sentence means so. On this ground we can eliminate the options A and C.

We are left with E.

Do you think that I am doing something wrong thinking in this way?
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by uwhusky » Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:11 pm
2. Providing them and milking them regularly, Cows....----> what does this mean?

--> it means that the cows are milking them. It is one of the misreadings. if anyone reads in this way, then the sentence means so. On this ground we can eliminate the options A and C.
Actually, I think there is modifier error, but it isn't the "opening modifier" error that you are referencing.

Read Ron's first explanation again here: https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/for ... t7058.html.
Yep.
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by ru2008 » Wed Sep 22, 2010 6:13 am
A Vs E...anyone can explain?
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by niksworth » Wed Sep 22, 2010 6:57 am
This was insanely difficult simply because even the correct answer could not instill any confidence in me (owing to the weird sentence construction).

I understand that this question is from one of the older paper based GMAT. Are such questions still asked in the test? Or are they remnants of a forgotten civilization?

Also, for GMAT in general, will practicing from old paper based tests be of any help? I do not see them incorporated in the GMAT preparation plans these days.
scio me nihil scire
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by artistocrat » Tue Dec 07, 2010 10:54 am
First I realized the pronoun 'them' is plural and must refer to cows not cow. That gets rid of a couple. You can also eliminate 'are producing' pretty safely as passive voice comes second to active. And there you pretty much have it...the answer is the only man left standing :-p
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by kapur.arnav » Tue Dec 07, 2010 11:02 am
uwhusky wrote:For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2275 gallons of milk each year.

A. providing them with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
B. providing them with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
C. provided with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
D. provided with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
E. provided with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cows will produce

Source: GMAT Prep

[spoiler]OA: E

This question made me cry, and I thought you guys might want to share my sorrow. Stacey did offer a great approach to this question, so let me know if you want to read her approach. [/spoiler]
A. For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, 'the' Holstein cows are producing - close option as it maintains parallelism... it misses out the... Holstein Cows is proper noun and needs to have the before it....
B. For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces - lacks parallelism because of use of them... strike off straight away....
C. For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, provided with high energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing - same as B...
D. provided with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces - For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool.... them is plural... whereas the Holstein Cow is singular... strike off...
E. provided with high energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cows will produce - Best Option... maintans parallelism, Subject verb agreement and pronoun rule....
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