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A tough SC question

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A tough SC question

by atulmangal » Sat Feb 26, 2011 12:33 pm
For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool,providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.
A. providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
B. providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
C. provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
D. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
E. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce

pls explain ur ans choice....
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by maihuna » Sat Feb 26, 2011 12:57 pm
Looks quite weird, what is the source?

If I have to choose one out I will go with A though not convinced.

in CDE the active farmer "who takes.." changes to passive "provided and milked" I am not sure how that can be justified.

In B, several them are referring to the cows, Iam not sure how it can refer to singulea cow.

SO I wil lgo with A, though it looks weird and incomprehensive to me.
atulmangal wrote:For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool,providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.
A. providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
B. providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
C. provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
D. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
E. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce

pls explain ur ans choice....
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:03 pm
atulmangal wrote:For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool,providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.
A. providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
B. providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
C. provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
D. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
E. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce

pls explain ur ans choice....
We can eliminate 3 of the 5 choices quite quickly, then it comes down to a style decision.

On a first read the original sounds fine, so we cant' immediately eliminate (A).

(B) has "providing them... and milked" - bad parallelism, eliminate (B).
(C) has "provided with... and milking them" - bad parallelism, eliminate (C).
(D) actually sounds pretty good, but you have to remember that the underlined portion must also agree with what comes after it; "the Holstein cow produces an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year" isn't consistent ("each" makes no sense with a singular noun) - eliminate (D).

(E) also sounds good, so we have to choose between (A) and (E).

There are two key differences. First, (A) uses "providing them" and "milking them" and (E) uses "provided" and "milked". Second, (A) uses "are producing" and (E) uses "will produce". In both cases, (E) is stylistically superior and does a better job of conveying the author's intended meaning.

On the first count, (E) uses fewer words to express the same idea, always a bonus on the GMAT.

On the second count, and this is probably the easier of the two to identify as a reason to choose (E), (E) better expresses the author's intention.

Based on the language of the opening phrase, the author is making a general statement about Holstein cow production. The use of the verb "are producing" in (A) makes it instead just a current fact about the Holstein, rather than a generally true statement; on the flip side, the use of "will produce" in (E) correctly conveys that this is a general statement about Holsteins rather than just a recitation of current production stats.
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by atulmangal » Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:22 pm
Stuart Kovinsky wrote:
atulmangal wrote:For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool,providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.
A. providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
B. providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
C. provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
D. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
E. provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce

pls explain ur ans choice....
We can eliminate 3 of the 5 choices quite quickly, then it comes down to a style decision.

On a first read the original sounds fine, so we cant' immediately eliminate (A).

(B) has "providing them... and milked" - bad parallelism, eliminate (B).
(C) has "provided with... and milking them" - bad parallelism, eliminate (C).
(D) actually sounds pretty good, but you have to remember that the underlined portion must also agree with what comes after it; "the Holstein cow produces an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year" isn't consistent ("each" makes no sense with a singular noun) - eliminate (D).

(E) also sounds good, so we have to choose between (A) and (E).

There are two key differences. First, (A) uses "providing them" and "milking them" and (E) uses "provided" and "milked". Second, (A) uses "are producing" and (E) uses "will produce". In both cases, (E) is stylistically superior and does a better job of conveying the author's intended meaning.

On the first count, (E) uses fewer words to express the same idea, always a bonus on the GMAT.

On the second count, and this is probably the easier of the two to identify as a reason to choose (E), (E) better expresses the author's intention.

Based on the language of the opening phrase, the author is making a general statement about Holstein cow production. The use of the verb "are producing" in (A) makes it instead just a current fact about the Holstein, rather than a generally true statement; on the flip side, the use of "will produce" in (E) correctly conveys that this is a general statement about Holsteins rather than just a recitation of current production stats.
Thanks a ton for the explanation stuart...OA is E only...i was looking for a satisfying comparision b/w A, E
Thanks...once again
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by atulmangal » Sat Feb 26, 2011 6:19 pm
Hii Stuart,
can u pls clarify my one doubt in this question???
here modifiers "providing them..." and "provided with..." are modifying the "Cows"
so, as per my knowledge of modifiers, if we ask question by putting "who" in front
of a modifier then the ans shld the noun to which it is modifying...
so if we ask, "who providing them..." then the ans is farmer not the cow...which is wrong
while if we ask "who provided with..." in tht case the ans is cows...so can drop the options A,B
on this basis?????
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Sat Feb 26, 2011 8:35 pm
atulmangal wrote:Hii Stuart,
can u pls clarify my one doubt in this question???
here modifiers "providing them..." and "provided with..." are modifying the "Cows"
so, as per my knowledge of modifiers, if we ask question by putting "who" in front
of a modifier then the ans shld the noun to which it is modifying...
so if we ask, "who providing them..." then the ans is farmer not the cow...which is wrong
while if we ask "who provided with..." in tht case the ans is cows...so can drop the options A,B
on this basis?????
Hi,

"providing them" is actually modifying the farmers, not the cows (since the farmers do the providing); "provided with" is in fact modifying the cows. Another reason to eliminate A and B is lack of parallelism: "to keep" is the first thing that the farmers do, so if we want to create a parallel list the next two items should be "provide" and "milk". In other words, we could rewrite the sentence as:
For the farmer who takes care to keep them cool, provide them with high energy feed and milk them regularly, Holstein cows will produce an average of 2,275 gallons of milk each per year.
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