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mgmat 700 - 800 : cotton gin

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mgmat 700 - 800 : cotton gin

by this_time_i_will » Sat Jul 03, 2010 10:19 am
The invention of the cotton gin, being one of the most significant developments of the nineteenth century, had turned cotton cloth into an affordable commodity; it was costly before that.

being one of the most significant developments of the nineteenth century, had turned cotton cloth into an affordable commodity; it was costly before that

having been one of the most significant developments of the nineteenth century, turned cotton cloth into an affordable commodity, costly previously

one of the most significant developments of the nineteenth century, turned cotton cloth into an affordable, however costly previously, commodity

one of the most significant developments of the nineteenth century, turned cotton cloth into an affordable commodity, whereas it had previously been costly

being one of the most significant developments of the nineteenth century, turned cotton cloth from a previously costly commodity to an affordable one

[spoiler]OA is D, but i chose E. i thought it in D is ambiguous. Can any one please tell me how it is not ambiguous.Moreover, don't you think that previously in D is redundant since we are alrady using past perfect.[/spoiler]
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by albatross86 » Sat Jul 03, 2010 10:34 am
Good question - here's my two cents.

"Being" is very often incorrect on the GMAT, and eliminating wordy usage of "being" and "having been" takes precedence over minor pronoun ambiguity.

If "it" refers to anything other than cotton cloth, it would either be incorrect grammatically or alter the intent absurdly.

eg. If "it" is considered to be referring to "the invention of the cotton gin", it makes no sense to say that it was costly before that. Before what?

If the SC examples from the OG are to be trusted, it is very often the case that pronoun ambiguity takes a back seat when the antecedent, among others, is fairly obvious in context, AND there are obvious flaws in the structures of the other choices.

Another thing is that "whereas" is always used as a comparative conjunction. Thus there needs to be something being compared. Here the obvious meaning is that we are comparing the cost before an invention and the cost after an invention, thus "it" is pointing to cotton cloth, the cost of which is being considered.

You will notice that in E, we have "previously costly" - this adds to the wordiness too.
~Abhay

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by this_time_i_will » Sat Jul 03, 2010 10:53 am
"Being" is very often incorrect on the GMAT, and eliminating wordy usage of "being" and "having been" takes precedence over minor pronoun ambiguity.
Not any more!. I guess GMAC folks have become smarter :). It took me a while not to strike off options with being
If "it" refers to anything other than cotton cloth, it would either be incorrect grammatically or alter the intent absurdly.
Here the obvious meaning is that we are comparing the cost before an invention and the cost after an invention, thus "it" is pointing to cotton cloth, the cost of which is being considered.
You can't trust on the obvious meanings. In that way there would be no ambiguous pronoun references.
You will notice that in E, we have "previously costly" - this adds to the wordiness too.
Can you please tell me how? In D i thought we are already using past perfect, but not in E.
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by this_time_i_will » Sat Jul 03, 2010 10:53 am
double post.
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by albatross86 » Sat Jul 03, 2010 11:08 am
Haha, looks like you've got a pretty fair idea about the question yourself.

I won't argue about the "obvious" aspect, since this is just a strategy I've developed which works for me. I found myself wasting time debating pronoun ambiguity when there were other aspects that were obviously (pardon the pun :P) choice-killers.

As for the wordiness of "being" - again this has worked pretty well for me, but of course this is contextual. This is in no way a blanket-ban on the word. When I see "being" used awkwardly I automatically look for other errors in that choice.

As for "previously costly commodity" - an adverb - adjective - noun setup is just hard on the eyes lol, and I've often encountered them in otherwise wordy sentences, but again -- no blanket ban.

I don't think previously is redundant in D. "It had been costly" doesn't clearly answer "when" and establish that we are talking about before the invention. You're right that past perfect is used to describe events "before the past", but that doesn't preclude the usage of another time pointer, at least in this sentence.

Anyway, a quick disclaimer - I'm no expert so feel free to ignore my comments and seek further advice :)
Just thought I'd share my own insights.

Thanks for the interesting discussion!
~Abhay

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by nikhilkatira » Tue Jul 06, 2010 3:17 am
albatross86 wrote:

As for "previously costly commodity" - an adverb - adjective - noun setup is just hard on the eyes lol, and I've often encountered them in otherwise wordy sentences, but again -- no blanket ban.
Please provide more precise explanation to eliminate Option E.
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Nikhil H. Katira
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by paes » Tue Jul 06, 2010 10:39 pm
E is incorrect as :

You folks are right that :
usage of being is not always incorrect On GMAT.

But whenever you will see a 'being' in the right choice, the sentence will not make sense without 'being'
I mean that 'being' will not be redundant.
e.g. Being honest is the only option for this job.

Here you can't remove 'being' from the sentence.

But in E :

The invention of the cotton gin, being one of the most significant developments of the nineteenth century, turned cotton cloth from a previously costly commodity to an affordable one .

Even if you remove being, the sentence makes perfect sense.

So clearly 'being' is redundant here and hence E is wrong.
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by viju9162 » Tue Jul 06, 2010 11:55 pm
I am confused about "it" usage in E. As albatross86 noted "it" here clearly refers to cotton cloth. But, it can refer to commodity right?

But as albatross86 mentioned, when the context is clear, ideally "it" refers to the subject irrespective of more than one reference..

Thanks,
Viju
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