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Question from Mc Graw Hill Practice test 1

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by nubu » Wed Dec 01, 2010 2:31 am
The police chief argued that first-time
offenders who have no high school diploma
but who have families with a record of crime
will probably break the law again.

A. who have no high school diploma but who
have families with a record of crime
B. without a high school diploma and
families having a criminal record
C. without a high school diploma whose
families have a record of crime
D. whose families have criminal records and
lacking high school diplomas
E. lacking high school diplomas and also
having families having criminal records

C
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by gmat_perfect » Wed Dec 01, 2010 4:01 am
nubu wrote:The police chief argued that first-time
offenders who have no high school diploma
but who have families with a record of crime
will probably break the law again.

A. who have no high school diploma but who
have families with a record of crime
B. without a high school diploma and
families having a criminal record
C. without a high school diploma whose
families have a record of crime
D. whose families have criminal records and
lacking high school diplomas
E. lacking high school diplomas and also
having families having criminal records

C
I see only A is the best of all the options.

C has a problem of "whose".

Diploma whose families ... means that diploma has family.

Experts, please come and comment.

Thanks.
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by jaymw » Wed Dec 01, 2010 7:47 am
definitely A, although technically families with recordS of crime would make even more sense.

B) without ...noun...and having -> not parallel

C) diploma whose families -> the diploma doesnt have families

D) whose..noun phrase... and having -> not parallel

E) offenders [...] having families having ... -> awkward and ambiguous to say the least
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by phoenixhazard » Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:28 am
nubu wrote:The police chief argued that first-time
offenders who have no high school diploma
but who have families with a record of crime
will probably break the law again.

A. who have no high school diploma but who
have families with a record of crime
B. without a high school diploma and
families having a criminal record
C. without a high school diploma whose
families have a record of crime
D. whose families have criminal records and
lacking high school diplomas
E. lacking high school diplomas and also
having families having criminal records

C
None sound great to me, definitely has to be A or B I feel though. "but who" in A seems to be a problem, why would but be in the statement, it is not refuting anything? B has the problem with "and families having," it should state and whose families since families refers to the student and is not independent.
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by ov25 » Wed Dec 01, 2010 1:32 pm
I would have to side with C...

Here is my take

'whose families' can only modify living beings in the sentence, which are 'offenders'. so there is no ambiguity. Moreover C is clear and concise.

A has a problem with 'but who'. the phrase 'with a record of crime' has no clear referrent. could be offenders or their families.
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by jaymw » Wed Dec 01, 2010 6:03 pm
I don't think the "but" in A is a big problem

...offenders who DON'T have something (diploma), BUT WHO have something else (criminal families).

What's the OA?
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by diebeatsthegmat » Thu Dec 02, 2010 1:01 am
nubu wrote:The police chief argued that first-time
offenders who have no high school diploma
but who have families with a record of crime
will probably break the law again.

A. who have no high school diploma but who
have families with a record of crime
B. without a high school diploma and
families having a criminal record
C. without a high school diploma whose
families have a record of crime
D. whose families have criminal records and
lacking high school diplomas
E. lacking high school diplomas and also
having families having criminal records

C
i also chose A and check McGraw Hill books and its official answer is C . and here is its explanation
A is less concise and its unclear why " but" is used here for??? dun understand!?!
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by e-GMAT » Thu Dec 02, 2010 5:22 am
In my response I will only comment about Choice A since the question pertains to why "but" is incorrect in choice A.

"But" is used to express a contrast. Now the contrast should be between two seemingly contrasting elements. In choice A, but establishes a contrast between the following facts:

people who do not have a high school diploma
people whose families have a record of crime

Now these two facts are not comparable. In my mind, these are two independent facts that do not have any direct bearing on one another. If we had to choose between two conjunctions "but" and "and", I would have chosen "and" since these are independent facts.
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by nubu » Thu Dec 02, 2010 7:59 am
I chose A and did not agree with OA (C) and the explanation. "Whose" should not stand behind diploma

* the best GMAT books just include OG, Manhattan and Cracking the Gmat. Kaplan is also good but I don't think it is close to standard GMAT test. Master the GMAT of Peterson and Mc Graw Hill are far behind. That's just my personal opinion. How do you think?
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by e-GMAT » Thu Dec 02, 2010 8:41 am
I do not find the placement of "whose" in choice C correct. That is why I only responded to the query about usage of "but" in choice A since there is definitely good learning in that aspect of the question - it pertains to using the correct conjunction per the intended and the logical meaning of the sentence.
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by nox104 » Thu Dec 02, 2010 1:29 pm
I chose C. I agree with ov25's and e-gmat's explanations.

- "But" should contrast 2 sentence elements, here there's no contrast whatsoever.
- Whose is correctly modifying offenders.
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by diebeatsthegmat » Sat Dec 04, 2010 12:46 am
e-GMAT wrote:In my response I will only comment about Choice A since the question pertains to why "but" is incorrect in choice A.

"But" is used to express a contrast. Now the contrast should be between two seemingly contrasting elements. In choice A, but establishes a contrast between the following facts:

people who do not have a high school diploma
people whose families have a record of crime

Now these two facts are not comparable. In my mind, these are two independent facts that do not have any direct bearing on one another. If we had to choose between two conjunctions "but" and "and", I would have chosen "and" since these are independent facts.
now got it, thank you indeed!
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by gmat1011 » Sat Dec 04, 2010 3:21 am
find it hard to believe any option with A record of crime (in singular) can be right. how can familiesS have a record - they have one record? i would have picked one from D or E though both are rather awkward... the answer is supposed to be C
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