Tobacco SC

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Tobacco SC

by aj5105 » Sat May 30, 2009 9:15 pm
In an effort to reduce the number of fires started by cigarettes, a major tobacco company is test-marketing a cigarette in which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, thereby slowing the rate at which it burns and lowering the heat it generates.

A.in which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, thereby slowing

B.in which they use thin layers of extra paper in decreasing the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, which slows

C.that uses thin layers of extra paper to decrease the amount of oxygen when it enters the cigarette, thereby slowing

D.for which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen that enters the cigarette, and thereby slowing

E.using thin layers of extra paper in decreasing the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, which slows

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by Jatinder » Sat May 30, 2009 9:56 pm
IMO A
problems with other options:--
B- "they" and "which"
C-"it"
D- "and"
E-"which"
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by rahulg83 » Sat May 30, 2009 10:02 pm
IMO A

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by nervesofsteel » Sat May 30, 2009 11:38 pm
imo A

only A makes sense

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by pratikgandhi » Sun May 31, 2009 2:19 am
IMO A. What is the OA?

B. they cannot refer to tobacco company,
B. use thin layer of extra paper "in decreasing" (sounds incorrect)
C. when "it" enters the cigarrette. what enters.. the oxygen or the thin paper.
D. "and" is not required
E. "in decreasing" same as in B
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by willkillgmat » Sun May 31, 2009 4:59 am
The answer is 'A'

B.

- Uses they (no plural noun)

C.

that uses (cigarette that uses wrong)

D.

and not required.

E.

using (is wrong here)(it seems like cigarette is using something for itself)

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by aj5105 » Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:27 pm
OA [A]

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by Kajiabeat » Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:50 pm
I'm not sure about D,

1."for which" vs."in which", I guess "in which" is a little better as it seems more concrete, but for which is also fine.

2. "entering the cigarette" vs"that enters the cigarette", both are OK, a red herring.

3."thereby"vs"and thereby",both are OK. in the case of "thereby", it is a conjunction, and followed by an elliptical form of "to slow"---"slowing"; in the case of "and thereby", "and" is conjunction and "thereby"is an adverb, which also followed by an ellipitcal "slowing" (I guess "slow" should be parallel to "decrease")

Am I right about all the above ideas? Please correct me if anything is wrong.

thank you very much!

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by lunarpower » Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:50 am
Kajiabeat wrote:1."for which" vs."in which", I guess "in which" is a little better as it seems more concrete, but for which is also fine.
"for which" is wrong.
this isn't an idiom issue -- it's an issue of literal meaning: these things happen in the cigarette, not "for" the cigarette.
2. "entering the cigarette" vs"that enters the cigarette", both are OK, a red herring.
yes.
3."thereby"vs"and thereby",both are OK. in the case of "thereby", it is a conjunction, and followed by an elliptical form of "to slow"---"slowing"; in the case of "and thereby", "and" is conjunction and "thereby"is an adverb, which also followed by an ellipitcal "slowing" (I guess "slow" should be parallel to "decrease")
this is incorrect. "thereby" is an adjective, and so may be ignored in a grammatical analysis. (it can't be ignored in an analysis of the meaning of the sentence, but, like other adverbs and adjectives, it has no effect on grammar.)
therefore, and + thereby + --ing has the same restrictions and grammatical significance as and + --ing; same for the construction without "and".

"and (+ thereby) + slowing" is incorrect, because "slowing" is not parallel to anything in the earlier part of the sentence. (i don't know what "elliptical form" means, so i can't comment on that.)

comma (+ thereby) + slowing is correct -- it modifies the action of the preceding clause, as is required of COMMA + --ING modifiers.
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by GmatKiss » Thu Sep 08, 2011 7:04 am
aj5105 wrote:In an effort to reduce the number of fires started by cigarettes, a major tobacco company is test-marketing a cigarette in which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, thereby slowing the rate at which it burns and lowering the heat it generates.

A.in which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, thereby slowing

B.in which they use thin layers of extra paper in decreasing the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, which slows

C.that uses thin layers of extra paper to decrease the amount of oxygen when it enters the cigarette, thereby slowing

D.for which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen that enters the cigarette, and thereby slowing

E.using thin layers of extra paper in decreasing the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, which slows

Answer is A

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by force5 » Thu Sep 08, 2011 7:22 am
great answer guys....

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by saurabh99 » Mon Dec 22, 2014 11:22 pm
I still cannot figure out why C is wrong.
Can someone explain

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by [email protected] » Tue Dec 23, 2014 7:37 am
Hi saurabh99,

There are a few problems with answer C:

1) The word "when" is supposed to reference a specific time, but there isn't a specific time that oxygen enters a cigarette.

2) The pronoun "it" is vague.

3) The verbs "enters" and "slowing" are not parallel.

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by lunarpower » Wed Dec 24, 2014 1:05 am
i received a private message about this thread.
1) The word "when" is supposed to reference a specific time, but there isn't a specific time that oxygen enters a cigarette.
^^ not really.
clearly, oxygen does enter a cigarette at some point in time. and, in a different context, this sort of construction could totally make sense.
e.g., This cigarette causes oxygen to cool rapidly when the oxygen enters the filter --> the oxygen actually cools at that specific time.

the problem is that, in the context of this problem, the construction is nonsense.
taken literally, "decrease the amount of oxygen when it enters the cigarette" suggests that there's X amount of oxygen prior to entry, but, WHEN that oxygen enters the cigarette, the quantity is reduced to some fraction of X amount.
clearly nonsense-a cigarette can't destroy atoms of an element.
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by lunarpower » Wed Dec 24, 2014 1:06 am
2) The pronoun "it" is vague.
in context, it's clear that "it" = oxygen, and oxygen is a singular noun. for the GMAT, that's good enough.

more importantly, talking about "vague pronouns" sets a bad precedent for the GMAT, which tests no such thing.
if the GMAT tests a pronoun error, that error will be black-and-white. e.g., singular pronoun vs. plural noun, or pronoun vs. something that isn't a noun.

trying to eliminate "vague pronouns" is going to lead to a very large frequency of false positives (= inadvertently eliminating the correct answer).
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