Sentence Correction

Mr. King, an individual of considerable influence, created a personal fortune
and gave back to the community.

A. an individual of considerable influence, created a personal fortune and
gave back

B. an individual of considerable influence, he created a personal fortune and
gave back

C. an individual of considerable influence created a personal fortune and
gave back

D. an individual of considerable influence, created a personal fortune and
gave it back

E. an individual of considerable influence, created a personal fortune and
then he gave it back


See below for answer..

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The answer given is A but shouldn't it be D. Mr. King should have given the "fortune" back to the community .. right? Why is "gave back to community" correct instead of "gave it back to community"?

"To give back to the community" is a phrase separate from "to give SOMETHING back to somebody." It means to be generous and repay as if what you have received from the society or your community earlier.

Kasia@MasterGMAT wrote:"To give back to the community" is a phrase separate from "to give SOMETHING back to somebody." It means to be generous and repay as if what you have received from the society or your community earlier.

But Kasia "to give SOMETHING back to somebody" is also correct for the sentence. So how do we know that only A is correct?

Please explain.

Not sure if this is an authentic question. Can you let us know the source. For example, the only difference between A and C seems to be a comma. You would not find this GMAT.

In fact, in the context of the sentence, E should be the right answer. With A, it seems that he did two totally unrelated things:

1. He created personal fortune
2. He gave back to the community (As Kasia mentions, give back to the community definitely cannot be interpreted as if he gave his fortune back)

The intent clearly is to say that he gave fortune back; this is definitely not coming out in A.

Grammatically, A and D are fine, so it comes down to meaning.

A--"gave back"; to help the community

D--"gave it back"; returned his fortune to the community

Either could work, but when in doubt I err on the side of the original meaning.

Brent@GMATPrepNow wrote:

coolhabhi wrote:

Kasia@MasterGMAT wrote:"To give back to the community" is a phrase separate from "to give SOMETHING back to somebody." It means to be generous and repay as if what you have received from the society or your community earlier.

But Kasia "to give SOMETHING back to somebody" is also correct for the sentence. So how do we know that only A is correct?

Please explain.

Good question.

In answer choice D, we have an ambiguity problem with the pronoun "it." What does it refer to?
What did Mr. King give back? His influence? His personal fortune?

Also, both of these references make little sense when coupled with the word "back."
case 1) He gave his influence back to the community? This suggests that the community once possessed the influence and were given it back.
case 2) He gave his personal fortune back to the community? This suggests that the community once possessed the Mr. King's personal fortune and were given it back.

Cheers,
Brent

thanx brent for your explanation

iongmat wrote:Not sure if this is an authentic question. Can you let us know the source. For example, the only difference between A and C seems to be a comma. You would not find this GMAT.

In fact, in the context of the sentence, E should be the right answer. With A, it seems that he did two totally unrelated things:

1. He created personal fortune
2. He gave back to the community (As Kasia mentions, give back to the community definitely cannot be interpreted as if he gave his fortune back)

The intent clearly is to say that he gave fortune back; this is definitely not coming out in A.

I was browsing through the net for practice questions and that is where I found it (testprepreview.com to be precise).

As far as the difference between choice A and C is concerned I would think otherwise. GMAT does check application of commas. One additional flaw that I could find in E is the extra "he" in the last sentence. I don't think it is required. I would also agree with Bill on sticking to the original meaning.