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preceded by vs preceded with

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preceded by vs preceded with

by aspirant2011 » Mon Jun 13, 2011 9:11 am
Researchers agreed that the study of new treatments for heart attack patients was extremely important but more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than the balloon procedure by itself.

A. more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than
B. more research was needed for determining whether or not balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than is
C. that more research was needed to determine whether balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than
D. that more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was any better for heart attack patients than
E. that more research was needed for determining that balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is or is not any better for heart attack patients than is

OA: Though I agree with answer as C but I have a doubt between preceded by and preceded with. Is precede by an idiom?
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:51 pm
Hey Aspirant,

Great question - and I'm perfectly comfortable even with the "expert" designation next to my name here to tell you that I don't know. Well, I guess I do know now - if this is an official question and C is right, then yes, "preceded by" is perfectly fine.

My favorite quote from one of my colleagues, Chris@VeritasPrep, is "most of the really tricky idioms I know I learned from looking at which answer choice was left when I eliminated all the bad ones on the GMATPrep tests".

There are just too many idioms to know all of them, so if you don't know for certain that it's wrong then look for another reason to differentiate between answer choices. There are a lot of correct phrasings in the English language and you'll never recognize them all. But know that that's one of the GMAT's tricks - the test wants you to eliminate things that are uncomfortable but still correct so that you miss some things that are definitely incorrect but maybe hidden a little bit.
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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:09 pm
aspirant2011 wrote:Researchers agreed that the study of new treatments for heart attack patients was extremely important but more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than the balloon procedure by itself.

A. more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was or was not any better for heart attack patients than
B. more research was needed for determining whether or not balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than is
C. that more research was needed to determine whether balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than
D. that more research was needed to determine that balloon angioplasty preceded with ultrasound was any better for heart attack patients than
E. that more research was needed for determining that balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is or is not any better for heart attack patients than is

OA: Though I agree with answer as C but I have a doubt between preceded by and preceded with. Is precede by an idiom?
Correct idioms are X is preceded by Y and Y precedes X:

The movie was preceded by a lecture.
A lecture preceded the movie.

Less common is to precede X with Y:

The author preceded the book with a dedication to his parents.

Also correct is to proceed with X:

The roads are slippery, so please proceed with caution.

Whereas precede means to come before, proceed means to move forward.
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by tanviet » Wed Jun 15, 2011 8:00 pm
Realizing the differences among answer choices is first step to realize the errors. an Answer choice is wrong because it is compared with another choice, the correct choice. That wrong choice can be corect if it stand alone. Of course, a choice which is wrong when it stand alone is wrong. This is gmat way of thinking

when we read a choice, we always try to find out the error without comparing with another choices.THIS IS SUICIDE.

REMEMBER: LOOK FOR THE DIFFERENCES TO FIND OUT ERROR FROM DIFFERENCES. AND some differences have no errors, other have errors.
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by winnerhere » Wed Jun 15, 2011 9:00 pm
C. that more research was needed to determine whether balloon angioplasty preceded by ultrasound is any better for heart attack patients than

isnt there a tense issue in the correct choice.

The sentence was completely in the past tense.but the answer choice has "is" at one place
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