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GMATPrep Question - Meaning Difference

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GMATPrep Question - Meaning Difference

by deep.amangmat » Sat Jun 25, 2011 4:33 pm
In the mid-1920s the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company was the scene of an intensive series of experiments that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance.

a) that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance
b) investigating the effects that changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance.
c) for investigating what the effects on workers' performance are that changes in working conditions would cause
d) that investigated changes in working conditions' effects on workers' performance
e) to investigate what the effects changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance

I came across this question in GMATPrep. Since it was pretty interesting meaning related question, I thought I'd post it here so that you can take a stab at it and we can discuss it. OA will be posted later.
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by vikram4689 » Sat Jun 25, 2011 6:01 pm
IMO B
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by najeeb775 » Sat Jun 25, 2011 10:44 pm
IMO B
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by Jim@Grockit » Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:04 pm
Keep in mind that "would" is not necessarily grammatically wrong the answers, since "would" is the past tense of "will" (so the sense of A would be "in the 1920s, these experiments were going investigate changes . . .").
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by mirantdon » Sun Jun 26, 2011 9:10 pm
@ vikram : did you select B because -ing subordinates the main idea
?
I selected b because of that reason
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by deep.amangmat » Mon Jun 27, 2011 7:46 am
Yes guys B is the correct answer.

In the mid-1920s the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company was the scene of an intensive series of experiments that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance.

a) that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance
This sentence is incorrect because it does not communicate the meaning very effectively. I can infer what it means but it is not written in precise manner. Some experiments were conducted with an aim to investigate the effects on workers' performance - effects due to changes in working conditions of workers. In this sentence "as to their effects" is imprecise.


b) investigating the effects that changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance.
This is correct choice since the verb-ing modifier with the comma describes the "experiments". The modifier is worded in the manner that it now communicates the intended meaning properly.

c) for investigating what the effects on workers' performance are that changes in working conditions would cause
This sentence has verb tense error. The sentence is in past tense (as also indicated by Jim above). So it is not correct to mix verb tenses as is done in this sentence.

d) that investigated changes in working conditions' effects on workers' performance
This is the most interesting choice. I was about to mark this as the correct one. But then I noticed that it does not communicate the intended message. Per this choice, the experiments investigated changes. Changes in the effects on performance. But the intended meaning is that the working conditions changed and the experiments investigated how these changes had an effect on the performance. This choice indicates that the effects themselves changed. There is no talk of the changes in the working conditions. Now obviously it may be the case that when working conditions changed in a certain manner, there were no changes in the performance. So this choice has meaning error.

e) to investigate what the effects changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance
I think this one also has meaning implication. I do not think it is clear what "to investigate" tells the purpose for - the purpose of experiments or the purpose of company being at the scene of investigation.

Would love to hear what you guys think about Choices D and E. Those were the most interesting ones in my opinion!

Thanks,

Aman
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by xxpatzz » Mon Jun 27, 2011 10:07 am
In answer B) why we use "changes" ?? shouldn't be change? because "effects" are plural?
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by vikram4689 » Mon Jun 27, 2011 8:22 pm
In the mid-1920s the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company was the scene of an intensive series of experiments that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance.

a) that would investigate changes in working conditions as to their effects on workers' performance - awkward construction, does not express intended meaning clearly
b) investigating the effects that changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance. - clearly expresses the intended meaning
c) for investigating what the effects on workers' performance are that changes in working conditions would cause- too awkward construction
d) that investigated changes in working conditions' effects on workers' performance - this is incorrect way, note that it can be resolved to "changes in effects of working conditions" and this is not correct. changes took place in working conditions and not in effects.
e) to investigate what the effects changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance - we need a modifier to describe the experiments and but this options describes "scene". scene ..... to investigate
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by deep.amangmat » Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:27 pm
xxpatzz wrote:In answer B) why we use "changes" ?? shouldn't be change? because "effects" are plural?
Well in an experiment, you really do more than 1 change and then you check the effects of those changes.

Same thing is happening here.

You are changing many things in the working conditions and then you will track the effect of each change. So cumulatively speaking you will have effects of changes...
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by GMATMadeEasy » Tue Jun 28, 2011 2:19 pm
@deep.amangmat : IN E I do not think error is of to investigate, this sounds good to me.

However watch this:
e) to investigate what the effects changes in working conditions would have on workers' performance
After effects and changes , it is awkward. I do not know how to pin point the erro. But I beleive this is the only error here.
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by deep.amangmat » Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:42 am
Hi @GMATMadeEasy,

I hear you about choice E. yes effects changes appear to be weird construction :)

But I still feel "to investigate" is the issue. When I read the sentence, I could not assign "to investigate" to any one with certainty.

In the responses above, @vikram4689 also pointed out similar thing. He thought that "to investigate" modifies "scene" but per intended meaning it should modify - experiments. That is why he said that choice E is incorrect...

Again, as I said, this was an interesting meaning based question. So would love to hear comments from veterans like you. :)
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by aspirant2011 » Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:58 am
Can anyone please clarify whether Hawthorne Works is single entity i.e one particular department of company or plural????
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by GMATMadeEasy » Wed Jun 29, 2011 12:14 pm
verb following the WORKs is singular - was . So you know the answer.

I guess we must ask to an expert for usage of to in E. However, I tend to agree that it is wrong and for what reasons ? :)
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