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"During" vs. "At the time of"

Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension
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"During" vs. "At the time of"

by GambitOS » Thu Dec 10, 2009 11:59 pm
Hi everybody!
I found this problem slightly hard for me.
Few days ago I solved wrong this SC question (from 1000 Real SC quesyions):

During the Great Depression, industrial output fell by nearly fifty percent from its peak in 1929 down to its nadir in 1933.

(A) During the Great Depression, industrial output fell by nearly fifty percent from its peak in 1929 down to its nadir in 1933.
(B) During the Great Depression, industrial output fell by nearly fifty percent from its peak in 1929 to its nadir in 1933.
(C) At the time of the Great Depression, industrial output fell by almost fifty percent from its 1929 peak down to its 1933 nadir.
(D) At the time of the Great Depression, industrial output fell from its peak in 1929, by nearly fifty percent, to it nadir in 1933.
(E) During the Great Depression, industrial output fell from its peak in 1929 to its nadir in 1933 by nearly fifty percent.

OA is B, but I don't understand the difference between "during" and "at the time of", because in my language both those phrases mean the same.

Please! Some native speaker! I need help :)
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by getso » Fri Dec 11, 2009 8:49 am
'During' is usually used for a general period of time and not for a definite period of time ..

At the time is more specific..I guess.

Like when I say I went for a movie sometime during the week, so on where 'during' doesn't mean the whole time but at certain times within the general period.

Lets wait for experts opinion.

Regards,
Shobha
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by GambitOS » Fri Dec 11, 2009 11:42 pm
May be (just my assumption) we can use "During" when we know some exact time-point (date, worlds like sometimes, never ect) in addition to the event? When it take some exact place on the time scale.
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by mikeCoolBoy » Mon Dec 21, 2009 11:26 pm
Hi when you're not sure about an split you shouldn't use it. You can solve this question without using the split during/at the time.

Options A and C contain the redundant fell .... down, so eliminate them.
Options D and E contain a misplaced modifier "by nearly fifty percent"

you're left with B.
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by bedazzled » Mon Jan 25, 2010 8:04 am
Well I would go for B as its not redundant but I would like to ask why E is not correct???

During the Great Depression, industrial output fell from its peak in 1929 to its nadir in 1933 by nearly fifty percent.

can't we use underlined portion like this???? When we speak, people sometimes speak like this too.
:?:
:?:
I am non native.
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by komal » Tue Jan 26, 2010 5:41 am
(A) During the Great Depression, industrial output fell by nearly fifty percent from its peak in 1929 down to its nadir in 1933 - Incorrect - redundant usage of "down" & "nadir"

(B) During the Great Depression, industrial output fell by nearly fifty percent from its peak in 1929 to its nadir in 1933 - Correct

(C) At the time of the Great Depression, industrial output fell by almost fifty percent from its 1929 peak down to its 1933 nadir. Incorrect - awkward and uses redundant "down"

(D) At the time of the Great Depression, industrial output fell from its peak in 1929, by nearly fifty percent, to it nadir in 1933 - Incorrect usage of "it"

(E) During the Great Depression, industrial output fell from its peak in 1929 to its nadir in 1933 by nearly fifty percent - Awkward compared with B
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by bedazzled » Tue Jan 26, 2010 9:53 am
Hi Komal,

I know E is awkward as compared to B but the question is why??? Even I will go for B in this question because my instincts tell me to do so but when next time the other question will come I can't figure out (may be). I want to go by reasoning not by instincts.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:33 pm
Great question, everyone - Mike's strategy is the most effective in a situation like this. The GMAT specifically tests a series of commonly-occurring mistakes (such as misplaced modifiers, which answer choice E contains...more about that later), so you'll have the most success searching for and eliminating based on those errors. You won't need to specifically know obscure idioms like "during" and "at the time of" in order to succeed.

That said, often times you can break down certain phrases like this one to find a logical error in them. Think about:

"At the time of"

That seems to suggest a specific time, like a moment or a day. You can say "at the time of the Merrill Lynch failure", because the actual failure took place at a specific instance. You wouldn't be able to say "at the time of the 1980s", because that encompasses a large span of time, and not one specific time.

"During" allows for a span of time, and because this sentence deals with the period of 1929 to 1933, the sentence requires that a duration (as I'm typing this, I realize that "during" and "duration" are correlated words, which further proves the point) be considered, so "during" is correct, and "at the time of" is wrong.

Someone had asked about answer choice E, as well. This one contains a misplaced modifier, as the phrase "by nearly fifty percent" has to modify the fall, and should therefore appear adjacent to the verb "fell". In both choices D and E, the phrase "by nearly 50%" comes at a point in the sentence removed from "fell", and so both choices are incorrect for that reason.
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by bedazzled » Wed Jan 27, 2010 3:02 am
Thanks Brian, I need to know about the modifiers & you cleared one of my doubts.
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