Medicare, the United States government's health insurance program for the elderly and disabled,
covers the full cost of home health care, but not with other nonhospital services where 20 percent
of the costs must be paid by beneficiaries.
A. but not with other nonhospital services where 20 percent of the costs must be paid by
beneficiaries
B. but not of other nonhospital services, making beneficiaries pay 20 percent of the costs
C. but not of other nonhospital services, for which beneficiaries must pay 20 percent of the costs
D. which is unlike other nonhospital services in that 20 percent of the costs must be paid by
beneficiaries
E. which is unlike other nonhospital services that make beneficiaries pay 20 percent of the costs
OA C, Why [spoiler]B[/spoiler] is wrong
Medicare
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There are two main principles tested in this problem: PARALLELISM and MODIFIERS.
PARALLELISM:
The conjunction "but" tells us that we need a parallel structure. In the original, we do not have parallelism:
Medicare... covers the cost of X, but not with Y.
We can eliminate A, which is not parallel. B and C both contain "of other hospital services," which is parallel. D and E change the structure entirely, so we no longer look for parallelism.
MODIFIERS:
Let's address D and E first. By changing the structure to "... home health care, which is unlike other nonhospital services..." we have changed the meaning drastically. We're no longer talking about "home health care" and "nonhospital services" as two comparable, parallel elements. The "which" makes it a MODIFIER - the "nonhospital services" are now describing the "home health care." This doesn't make much sense, and it drastically changes the meaning of the original.
Eliminate D and E.
In B and C, the difference is between "making" and "for which." In B, the present participle "making" is acting as an adverbial modifier - it's modifying the entire clause that came before it. In other words, it's saying that the fact that Medicare covers X but not Y is the thing that's making beneficiaries pay 20%. This may not be grammatically incorrect, but it fails the meaning test.
The idea of "beneficiaries paying 20%" should only be modifying nonhospital services. In C, the noun modifier "for which" correctly captures this meaning.
PARALLELISM:
The conjunction "but" tells us that we need a parallel structure. In the original, we do not have parallelism:
Medicare... covers the cost of X, but not with Y.
We can eliminate A, which is not parallel. B and C both contain "of other hospital services," which is parallel. D and E change the structure entirely, so we no longer look for parallelism.
MODIFIERS:
Let's address D and E first. By changing the structure to "... home health care, which is unlike other nonhospital services..." we have changed the meaning drastically. We're no longer talking about "home health care" and "nonhospital services" as two comparable, parallel elements. The "which" makes it a MODIFIER - the "nonhospital services" are now describing the "home health care." This doesn't make much sense, and it drastically changes the meaning of the original.
Eliminate D and E.
In B and C, the difference is between "making" and "for which." In B, the present participle "making" is acting as an adverbial modifier - it's modifying the entire clause that came before it. In other words, it's saying that the fact that Medicare covers X but not Y is the thing that's making beneficiaries pay 20%. This may not be grammatically incorrect, but it fails the meaning test.
The idea of "beneficiaries paying 20%" should only be modifying nonhospital services. In C, the noun modifier "for which" correctly captures this meaning.
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
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Hello Ceilidh,
I am, somewhat, not convinced with only {C} being the correct answer ..
{B} says beneficiary now has to pay 20%.. meaning 80% is covered by Medicare
{C} says Medicare doesn't cover non-hospital services, which costs 20%.
As far as I know, there is no such rule in GMAT SC that states that meaning described in original sentence must be maintained; I remember one "Gangster/Mobster" question which also had similar meaning issue.
What do you say?
I am, somewhat, not convinced with only {C} being the correct answer ..
{B} says beneficiary now has to pay 20%.. meaning 80% is covered by Medicare
{C} says Medicare doesn't cover non-hospital services, which costs 20%.
As far as I know, there is no such rule in GMAT SC that states that meaning described in original sentence must be maintained; I remember one "Gangster/Mobster" question which also had similar meaning issue.
What do you say?
R A H U L
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As per my understanding ,-ing modifier should either describe the preceding clause or shows the result/outcome of the preceding clause.
I considered "making benefeciary pay" as a result of the preceding clause and for that reason chose B.
Can somebody please clarify flaw in my logic.
Thanks
Sid
I considered "making benefeciary pay" as a result of the preceding clause and for that reason chose B.
Can somebody please clarify flaw in my logic.
Thanks
Sid
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Whenver Verb+ing form is there, it will try to identify main subject, in this case after comma making refers to US health care rather than non-hospital services because the latter is embedded in the form of prepositional phrase.manihar.sidharth wrote:As per my understanding ,-ing modifier should either describe the preceding clause or shows the result/outcome of the preceding clause.
I considered "making benefeciary pay" as a result of the preceding clause and for that reason chose B.
Can somebody please clarify flaw in my logic.
Thanks
Sid
Please revert for any further and experts please help if my logic is right