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Help!!! OG Sentence correction.

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by Nidhs » Sun Jan 13, 2008 12:30 pm
For members of the seventeenth-century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment, a method to protect warriors against enemy arrows and
spears.

(A) a method to protect

(B) as a method protecting

(C) protecting

(D) as a protection of

(E) to protect
OA is (C)...but i can't understand why. Can someone please explain
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by solaris » Sun Jan 13, 2008 2:51 pm
What was your answer pick?

A 'shield' is not a 'method' - agreed? so, A and B are out.

'As a protection of' is completely ungrammatical, so strike D out.

Choice E, the 'to protect' form following a comma isn't correct either.

Therefore, answer is C.
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by Nidhs » Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:30 pm
my choice was (E)
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by solaris » Sun Jan 13, 2008 7:31 pm
right, unless i'm mistaken it was the placement of the comma that made E incorrect.
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Re: Help!!! OG Sentence correction.

by piyush_nitt » Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:10 pm
Nidhs wrote:For members of the seventeenth-century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment, a method to protect warriors against enemy arrows and
spears.

(A) a method to protect

(B) as a method protecting

(C) protecting

(D) as a protection of

(E) to protect
OA is (C)...but i can't understand why. Can someone please explain
1.What exaclty protecting modifies here ? Shields or items ??
2. Why option E is incorrect ? Cannot we use infinitive instead of participle?
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by piyush_nitt » Fri Mar 20, 2009 4:41 am
Plz help guys ?
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by schumi_gmat » Sat Mar 21, 2009 10:48 am
For members of the seventeenth-century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment, a method to protect warriors against enemy arrows and
spears.

Lets anlayse the sentence

Animal hide shields ---------Subject (noun)

were essential items of military equipement for members....

"to protect" is an infinitive cannot act as adjective to modify noun.
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by codesnooker » Sat Mar 21, 2009 1:10 pm
(E) is wrong because you can not use the following form.

Main clause + COMMA + infinitive.

Rules of Infinitive:-

1. Infinitive phrase + COMMA + Main Clause
2. Start of Main clause + COMMA + Infinitive phrase + COMMA + End of Main clause
3. Main Clause + Infinitive phrase (without COMMA)


Option (E) breaks the third rule, hence INCORRECT option.
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by gmat740 » Sat Mar 21, 2009 3:44 pm
Thanks a lot guys
It helped me to improve my concept
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by Rashmi1804 » Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:53 pm
@codesnooker
Rules of Infinitive:-

1. Infinitive phrase + COMMA + Main Clause
2. Start of Main clause + COMMA + Infinitive phrase + COMMA + End of Main clause
3. Main Clause + Infinitive phrase (without COMMA)


Could you quote a couple of examples on these rules?? or cite a source that gives more information ??
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by aniruddhkashyap » Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:05 pm
Another sentence correction question where i need a clarification......

Q32: To develop more accurate population forecasts, demographers have to know a great deal more than now about the social and economic determinants of fertility.

A. have to know a great deal more than now about the social and economic
B. have to know a great deal more than they do now about the social and economical
C. would have to know a great deal more than they do now about the social and economical
D. would have to know a great deal more than they do now about the social and economic
E. would have to know a great deal more than now about the social and economical

The answer for this question is given as E but I felt D is more appropriate
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by arpita@gurome » Fri Apr 23, 2010 3:22 am
aniruddhkashyap wrote:Another sentence correction question where i need a clarification......

Q32: To develop more accurate population forecasts, demographers have to know a great deal more than now about the social and economic determinants of fertility.

A. have to know a great deal more than now about the social and economic
B. have to know a great deal more than they do now about the social and economical
C. would have to know a great deal more than they do now about the social and economical
D. would have to know a great deal more than they do now about the social and economic
E. would have to know a great deal more than now about the social and economical

The answer for this question is given as E but I felt D is more appropriate
(A) is incorrect because of the incorrect comparison. "Now" almost seems like a person in this sentence construction.
(B) is incorrect because "economical" and "economic" do not have the same connotation. Economical means "thrifty".
(C) fixes the error in comparison but retains the error in "economical".
(E) repeats the mistake in (A) by comparing the knowledge of social and economic determinants to "now".
(D) is the correct answer because it correctly conveys that demographers would have to know more than they presently know (do) about the social and economic determinants.
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by NIXBTG » Mon May 03, 2010 7:23 am
Thanks for the inifinitive rules!

Can someone plzzz post rules for participial pharases. I struggle to understand the difference betweem "comma" ing and not "comma" ing while using a participial pharse.

Thanks in advance,


Nix
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by tanviet » Wed May 05, 2010 1:53 am
Nidhs wrote:For members of the seventeenth-century Ashanti nation in Africa, animal-hide shields with wooden frames were essential items of military equipment, a method to protect warriors against enemy arrows and
spears.

(A) a method to protect

(B) as a method protecting

(C) protecting

(D) as a protection of

(E) to protect
OA is (C)...but i can't understand why. Can someone please explain
why A is wrong

the pattern

main clause+comma+abstract noun+abstract noun's modifier

is right

Ron said that this pattern is right.
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by pradeepkaushal9518 » Wed May 05, 2010 5:15 am
dear duong thang

a method to protect is wordy and doest not modify items of military equipment

hence A is wrong
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