One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was

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rakeshd347: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 391; Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 5:13 amFollowed by: 4 members; Thanked: 50 times

by rakeshd347 » Thu Oct 10, 2013 11:02 pm

One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their minds tend to wander.

A) their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their
B) their appreciation that as people dehydrate, their
C) to appreciate that when a person dehydrates, his or her
D) to appreciate that when people dehydrate, their
E) appreciating that as people dehydrate, their

Source: Kaplan test

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Thu Oct 10, 2013 11:02 pm

theCodeToGMAT: Legendary Member; Posts: 1556; Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:18 pmFollowed by: 34 members; Thanked: 448 times; GMAT Score:650

by theCodeToGMAT » Fri Oct 11, 2013 7:50 am

According to me,

{A} - INCORRECT; "person" & "their" SVA error
{B} - CORRECT
{C} - INCORRECT; "when" is incorrect.. "as" is correct usage as per meaning
{D} - INCORRECT; "when" is incorrect.. "as" is correct usage as per meaning.
{E} - INCORRECT; Result is not appreciating.

R A H U L

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vinay1983: Legendary Member; Posts: 643; Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Thanked: 48 times

by vinay1983 » Fri Oct 11, 2013 8:47 am

One usually takes singular, so I go with D, "when this happens, that happens" analogy to me.

You can, for example never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to!

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Mike@Magoosh: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 768; Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:18 pmFollowed by: 140 members; Location: Berkeley, CA; Thanked: 387 times

by Mike@Magoosh » Fri Oct 11, 2013 11:08 am

rakeshd347 wrote:One result of the family's long ordeal at sea was their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their minds tend to wander.

A) their appreciation that as a person dehydrates, their
B) their appreciation that as people dehydrate, their
C) to appreciate that when a person dehydrates, his or her
D) to appreciate that when people dehydrate, their
E) appreciating that as people dehydrate, their

Source: Kaplan test

See the link to this thread, and my comment on this problem:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/ordeal-t112712.html

Mike

Magoosh GMAT Instructor
https://gmat.magoosh.com/

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[email protected]: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 10392; Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:38 pmFollowed by: 511 members; Location: Palo Alto, CA; Thanked: 2867 times; GMAT Score:800

by [email protected] » Fri Oct 11, 2013 2:07 pm

Hi rakeshd347,

This SC has a problem with its "style" and "intent" that Official GMAT SCs won't have.

There are two concrete rules though:

1) The word "family" is a singular noun (similar to "group" or "team"), so the pronoun would NOT be "their." Eliminate A and B.
2) The noun "minds", after the underlined portion of the sentence, is plural, so we need a plural noun. Eliminate C.

At this point, we have some intent/style issues. Stylistically, I *think* that the phrase "to appreciate" *sounds better* than "appreciating", but the word "when" is supposed to be for an event that takes place at a specific TIME. The idea that a person dehydrates at a specific "time" is an odd concept. In that same vein, the verb "appreciating" implies that the family might appreciate the effects of dehydration at more than one point in time (the appreciation took place in the past, could take place right now and could take place in the future).

An argument could be made for either D or E. These sorts of situations are remarkably rare on the GMAT, so don't put too much energy into this one SC. In the event that this were to happen on a GMAT question, the question would likely be "experimental" (and not count) or be retroactively removed (and your score adjusted accordingly).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Contact Rich at [email protected]

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rakeshd347: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 391; Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 5:13 amFollowed by: 4 members; Thanked: 50 times

by rakeshd347 » Fri Oct 11, 2013 4:05 pm

Thanks rich and mike,

However the correct answer is B.
This is a kaplan test question and they have justified their answer by saying that family is singular but every member of family is participating then it can take plural pronoun. So the OA is B

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Mike@Magoosh: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 768; Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:18 pmFollowed by: 140 members; Location: Berkeley, CA; Thanked: 387 times

by Mike@Magoosh » Sat Oct 12, 2013 12:44 pm

rakeshd347 wrote:Thanks rich and mike,

However the correct answer is B.
This is a kaplan test question and they have justified their answer by saying that family is singular but every member of family is participating then it can take plural pronoun. So the OA is B

Dear Rakeshd347,
I hate to say it, my friend, but that particular piece of advice is pure poison. If you follow this logic for pronoun use with collective nouns, you will get one pronoun problem after another wrong on the GMAT SC. The GMAT loves to test singular/plural pronouns against singular collective nouns with multiple members. You will NEVER see a question on the real GMAT in which this "every member is participating" logic justifies use of the plural pronoun.
Mike

Magoosh GMAT Instructor
https://gmat.magoosh.com/

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