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Marconi's Conception

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Marconi's Conception

by Josh85 » Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:02 pm
Marconi's conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is precisely the opposite, a tool for communication with a large, public audience.

(A) Marconi's conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is
(B) Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, but which is
(C) Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become
(D) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a tool for private conversation, a substitute for the telephone, which has become
(E) Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation, other than what it is,

Can someone explain why the answer is C and not A. The first part of C does not sound logically correct and I have no idea why the official guide says thats the right answer as opposed to A.

Thanks in advance.
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by tanviet » Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:40 am
check grammar and check meaning

check grammar

"conceive of st as st" is idiomatic. a,d,e out

"conception was as" in a is not idiomatic

check meaning

"which" in A has no antecedant

"a tool" refers to "telephone" is wrong in B, "but which" has not referent

C is left.
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by Josh85 » Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:20 am
Your explanation is kind of confusing. I don't mean to be rude but could you clarify a few points?

("conceive of st as st" is idiomatic. a,d,e out) Forgive my naivete, but I'm not sure what you mean by saying "st as st"

("conception was as" in a is not idiomatic) This I understand after taking another look at it.

("which" in A has no antecedant.) There is no "which" in choice A.
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by capnx » Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:58 am
C's "it has become" is better than A's "it is". The first half is in the past tense, and the second half is saying something that is true both in the past and present, so past perfect tense describes the meaning better.

Also in A, what was a substitute for the telephone? Radio or Marconi's conception?
In C, it is clear that "that" refers to "a tool" to substitute for the telephone.
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by sunnyjohn » Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:45 pm
Josh85 wrote:Marconi's conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is precisely the opposite, a tool for communication with a large, public audience.


(A) Marconi's conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is

Two mistakes :- 1) 'As' usage seems wrong.
2) conception become the subject of first clause, so in second clause it seems to referring 'conception'.

(C) Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become

Here, I believe Conceived is working verb used in idiomatic form: conceived of. So, 'it' in second clause seems to refer Radio.



Can someone explain why the answer is C and not A. The first part of C does not sound logically correct and I have no idea why the official guide says thats the right answer as opposed to A.

Thanks in advance.
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by lunarpower » Thu Dec 03, 2009 2:36 am
(a) has incorrect diction. you can't say "his conception was as..."
i don't really know what this error is formally called, but it's a VERY common type of error, in which spoken-language forms are incorrectly substituted into written language.

here are some more examples of the same sort of problem. all of the following are wrong:
the reason for X was because...
the way to do X is if you...
the problem is when...

most other forms that look like this are also incorrect. if you were just editing prose (as a second-language english speaker), this would be an impossible task, but, if you have answer choices with which to compane the item in question, you have a better chance of figuring out what's wrong.

(the corrected versions of the above:
the reason for X is that...
the way to X is to VERB...
the problem is that...)

also, if there's a verb form for something that uses fewer words, it's generally preferable to the clumsy noun form.

for instance, X conceived of Y as Z is much, much better than X's conception of Y was Z.
similarly, X thought of Y as Z is much, much better than X's idea of Y was Z.
etc.

the other problem with (a) is that it uses the present tense.
the sentence discusses what has become of the telephone since its original conception by the 1900's-era innovator Marconi. since the sentence is contrasting the evolution of the telephone with its original conception, it's more appropriate to use "has become".
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by lunarpower » Thu Dec 03, 2009 2:36 am
--

in (d) and (e), "conceived ... to be" is unidiomatic. you need "as".

--

(d) is all kinds of wrong. the modifier ("a substitute for the telephone") doesn't clearly point to anything, and the sentence is also saying that the telephone is now used to reach large audiences (!)

in (e), "other than what it is" isn't properly formal, and it's also not clear what that's supposed to mean.

--

in (b),
* "which" isn't parallel to anything
* "a tool for private conversation" applies to the telephone (it's supposed to apply to the radio) -- (e) has this same problem.
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by mmslf75 » Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:40 am
lunarpower wrote:--

in (d) and (e), "conceived ... to be" is unidiomatic. you need "as".

--

(d) is all kinds of wrong. the modifier ("a substitute for the telephone") doesn't clearly point to anything, and the sentence is also saying that the telephone is now used to reach large audiences (!)

in (e), "other than what it is" isn't properly formal, and it's also not clear what that's supposed to mean.

--

in (b),
* "which" isn't parallel to anything
* "a tool for private conversation" applies to the telephone (it's supposed to apply to the radio) -- (e) has this same problem.
Can we use
.......;instead .....

.......;however .....

.......;because .....

are these contruction types valid on GMAT ??
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by hrishi19884 » Tue Dec 22, 2009 12:43 am
" conceived by " , "conceived of as" are the idioms that can be used.

"conceived to be" is an incorrect idiom.

That leaves us with the options B and C

B says " Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for private conversation"

it doesn't clarify if "radio" or ""telephone" is a tool for private conversation.

Hence C is the best choice
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by lunarpower » Sat Dec 26, 2009 12:37 am
mmslf75 wrote:Can we use
.......;instead .....

.......;however .....

.......;because .....

are these contruction types valid on GMAT ??
it's more complicated than this; you can't just memorize those fragments in isolation. by themselves, those little pieces don't really have much meaning, and can be either right or wrong.

in the context of which you're probably thinking, the first two make sense, and the third doesn't.

here are some examples of what i think you had in mind:

we chose not to go to the aquarium; instead, we went to the zoo.
this is correct.

we had planned to wake up early; however, we slept until noon.
this is also correct.

we slept much longer than we had planned; because our alarm clocks ran out of batteries.
this is INCORRECT.

--

it's possible to follow a semicolon with "because", though, as long as it's the first word of a complete sentence that follows the semicolon:
i was delighted by the lack of snow; because he had never seen snow before, however, hector was disappointed.
this is correct; note that the second part is a complete sentence all by itself.
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by papgust » Sat Dec 26, 2009 12:59 am
Ron,
I've read somewhere in the forum that a sentence should never start with "because" in the GMAT. Is this true?
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by lunarpower » Sat Dec 26, 2009 1:33 am
papgust wrote:Ron,
I've read somewhere in the forum that a sentence should never start with "because" in the GMAT. Is this true?
nah, not true.

what they're probably trying to tell you is that you can't start a single-clause sentence with "because".
for instance:
why are you late?
because i lost my car keys.
in this example, the second half isn't a sentence; you can't just attach "because" to an otherwise independent clause and call it a sentence.

on the other hand, it's totally ok to have "because" as a subordinating conjunction, subordinating the first clause.
because i couldn't find my car keys, i was late to work.
this is a correct sentence, with the same structure as "although i studied a lot, i still failed the test." in these cases, although and because follow the same rules.
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by papgust » Sat Dec 26, 2009 2:03 am
I got the idea. Thanks Ron for clarifying!
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by lunarpower » Sat Dec 26, 2009 10:47 pm
papgust wrote:I got the idea. Thanks Ron for clarifying!
glad it helped
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by prabsahi » Sun Aug 06, 2017 6:24 pm
Hi,

I have one little doubt with option C.

''it'' Reference---isn't it ambiguous..Can't it refer to either radio or telephone.

Please help!!
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