Good one- Idiom + Parallelism

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Good one- Idiom + Parallelism

by 800target » Mon Dec 06, 2010 1:48 pm
It may someday be worthwhile to try to recover uranium from seawater, but at present this process is prohibitively expensive.

(A) lt may someday be worthwhile to try to recover uranium from seawater
(B) Someday, it may be worthwhile to try and recover uranium from seawater
(C) Trying to recover uranium out of seawater may someday be worthwhile
(D) To try for the recovery of uranium out of seawater may someday be worthwhile
(E) Recovering uranium from seawater may be worthwhile to try to do someday

OA: A

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by BastiG » Mon Dec 06, 2010 2:24 pm
Thx 4 posting the question. But pls use spoiler for the answer.

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by amir_hatef » Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:52 pm
Can nazar7ft come and help us on this post? We Need you till reach to the 750+ doors!!

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by Isaac@EconomistGMAT » Tue Dec 07, 2010 5:40 pm
Looking at the answer choices:

c, d, and e are all wordy and awkward.
In C, to recover out of is incorrect, idiom-wise;
In D; to try for the recovery is awkward and wordy

Both C and D also have strange constructions in terms of what comes after the 'but'; the construction is not quite parallel to the non-underlined portion and they both needlessly begin with modifying phrases.
In E, it is the end which is certainly awkward and wordy (may be worthwhile to try to do someday)-the 'to do' is completely redundant.

Altogether sentences make more sense when direct and indirect objects come after the verbs, so that there is no difficulty in understanding. Also, be aware that sometimes in the GMAT, the sentence's construction is changed, resulting in emphasis being changed, and this is usually a no-no.

For example: He bought a toy car is clearer than A toy car he bought. The car is the object and unless it is made into a passive sentence (a toy car was bought...[this is also not preferred by the GMAT people], it is wiser to stick with a normal construction of Subject-Verb-Object.

As for A and B, the idiom should be to try to and not to try and, otherwise B would be a better answer choice.
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by amir_hatef » Wed Dec 08, 2010 12:35 am
Thanks Issac for such a good explanation. Keep sharing your knowledge with us.

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by EducationAisle » Wed Dec 08, 2010 2:34 am
Also, a glaring issue with B is the presence of and, which is a co-ordinating conjunction used to connect two independent events or occurrences. B states:

Someday, it may be worthwhile to try and recover uranium from seawater, but at present this process is prohibitively expensive.

So, in some sense, the sentence is saying that:

1. Someday, it may be worthwhile to try (try what is not coming out clearly at all)
2. Someday, it may be worthwhile to recover uranium from seawater

The link between 1 and 2 above (try to recover) is missing in B.
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by ikaplan » Wed Dec 08, 2010 3:44 am
Great question and great explanation.

Thanks a lot!
"Commitment is more than just wishing for the right conditions. Commitment is working with what you have."