Prep 2

This topic has expert replies
Source: — Sentence Correction |

Legendary Member
Posts: 940
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:22 am
Thanked: 55 times
Followed by:1 members

Re: Prep 2

by iamcste » Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:12 am
moneyman wrote:PLs explain

IMO D

B and C incorrect modifer which and expended for is not idiomatic

A expended for

D -accounted for is rigt and parallelism of verbs

E- akward, that is not needed, creation of is awkward

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 168
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2008 4:34 am
Location: Pittsburgh
Thanked: 9 times

by Tryingmybest » Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:18 am
IMO D

A B C - Passive voice "was expended"

E uses that for temples which is wrong.

We are left with D

User avatar
Community Manager
Posts: 1049
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2008 5:15 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Thanked: 113 times
Followed by:27 members
GMAT Score:710

by dmateer25 » Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:38 am
I disagree with D

It is very awkward.


I go with B.

much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 377
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:30 am
Thanked: 15 times
Followed by:2 members

by schumi_gmat » Sun Nov 23, 2008 12:10 pm
A. IS passive and them does not have clear referrent

B. and C they does not have clear referrent

D. Parallel and "them" refers to images of buddha

Temples enshrining them clearly refers to Buddha images. Hence Correct.

E. same as A

User avatar
Community Manager
Posts: 1049
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2008 5:15 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Thanked: 113 times
Followed by:27 members
GMAT Score:710

Legendary Member
Posts: 940
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:22 am
Thanked: 55 times
Followed by:1 members

by iamcste » Sun Nov 23, 2008 12:15 pm
B undoubtedly has its own issues as D

Pls check here

https://www.beatthegmat.com/help-please- ... t9245.html

Excerpt is
lunarpower wrote:

In ancient Thailand, much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended for the creation of Buddha images and when they constructed and decorated the temples that enshrined them.
...
B. much of the local artisans’ creative energy was expended on the creation of Buddha images and on construction and decoration of the temples in which they were enshrined

incidentally, this is not a well-written problem; it has 2 issues that wouldn't pass muster on an official test. viz.:

1) 'they' is technically ambiguous (although easy to resolve with 'common sense'), a situation that the gmat would not tolerate. on the gmat, 'they' would undoubtedly be replaced by 'those images'.

2) in order to maintain parallelism (about which the gmat is downright religious in its zeal), you'd want to insert the between 'on' and 'construction'.

Last edited by iamcste on Sun Nov 23, 2008 12:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Legendary Member
Posts: 940
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:22 am
Thanked: 55 times
Followed by:1 members

by iamcste » Sun Nov 23, 2008 12:17 pm
Pls refer above post. ( particularly bold part) this was duplicated.

I am glad for Ron's post and his expert comments !!

User avatar
Community Manager
Posts: 1049
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2008 5:15 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Thanked: 113 times
Followed by:27 members
GMAT Score:710

by dmateer25 » Sun Nov 23, 2008 12:29 pm
I just read the same post.

I agree that B has issues and "they" is ambiguous. However, of the choices I feel B is the best available.

I am surprised this question was on gmat prep.

Iamcste, you did mention that you thought "which" was an incorrect modifier in choice B.

You can use "in which" to introduce a relative clause after a noun that refers to a place or time.

Legendary Member
Posts: 940
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:22 am
Thanked: 55 times
Followed by:1 members

by iamcste » Sun Nov 23, 2008 12:47 pm
dmateer25 wrote:I just read the same post.

I agree that B has issues and "they" is ambiguous. However, of the choices I feel B is the best available.

I did not find abut this pronoun error in your explanations...and there are other issues as well which Ron mentioned

I am surprised this question was on gmat prep.

same here

Iamcste, you did mention that you thought "which" was an incorrect modifier in choice B.

You can use "in which" to introduce a relative clause after a noun that refers to a place or time.

Can you provide more info or source on this

User avatar
Community Manager
Posts: 1049
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2008 5:15 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Thanked: 113 times
Followed by:27 members
GMAT Score:710

by dmateer25 » Sun Nov 23, 2008 1:06 pm

Legendary Member
Posts: 940
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:22 am
Thanked: 55 times
Followed by:1 members

by iamcste » Sun Nov 23, 2008 1:13 pm
any reference to OG or its supplement or MG

User avatar
Community Manager
Posts: 1049
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2008 5:15 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Thanked: 113 times
Followed by:27 members
GMAT Score:710

by dmateer25 » Sun Nov 23, 2008 1:28 pm
For the test, you can generally think of it as: use "in which" when you want to use "where" but it's not a physical location or "when" but it's not a time. :)

"in" is a preposition - you can put lots of different prepositions before which. So you use "in" when you mean either literally or metaphorically located within, or a part of.

"which" is a relative pronoun, so you use it to refer to some other noun elsewhere in the sentence.
That is a quote by Stacey Koprince on the MGMAT forums.

Legendary Member
Posts: 940
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:22 am
Thanked: 55 times
Followed by:1 members

by iamcste » Sun Nov 23, 2008 1:30 pm
dmateer25 wrote:
For the test, you can generally think of it as: use "in which" when you want to use "where" but it's not a physical location or "when" but it's not a time. :)

"in" is a preposition - you can put lots of different prepositions before which. So you use "in" when you mean either literally or metaphorically located within, or a part of.

"which" is a relative pronoun, so you use it to refer to some other noun elsewhere in the sentence.
That is a quote by Stacey Koprince on the MGMAT forums.
cool. danke. merci

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:35 pm
Thanked: 1 times

by xyzabc123 » Sun Nov 23, 2008 2:22 pm
I found Stacey's comments: https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/in- ... -t785.html

Her logic will make answer B wrong as the temple is a physical location. . So where should be used in this sentence.

Her logic does not contradict my logic:
the which clause is grammatically incorrect. The temples lack a qualifier in the front i.e. the sentence is not ... the old temples in which ... So the which clause is the only qualifier of the temples and so is restrictive. I found many sources on the net that say such a clause should start with that. So B & C are out as grammatically incorrect.

D & E are trying to express the idea that creation as well as construction and decoration accounted for the energy.
D uses this structure: A accounted for X, and also B and C
This seems grammatically incorrect to me.
E uses the structure: A accounted for X, as well as B and C.
E seems grammatically correct. It does use the unidiomatic creation of images. So I would stay with a grammatically correct but unidiomatic answer and choose E.