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OG Verbal Review SC #39 Retiring Doctors

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OG Verbal Review SC #39 Retiring Doctors

by tonebeeze » Thu Jan 13, 2011 6:12 pm
Can someone explain to me why [spoiler](C)[/spoiler] is incorrect? What is the rule of thumb regarding using infinitives vs. -ing verb forms in this problem. Another tricky component to this problem is that the second "to" is implied, and not included.

A recent study has found that within the past few years, many doctors had elected early retirement rather than face the threats of lawsuits and the rising costs of malpractice insurance.

a. had elected early retirement rather than face
b. had elected early retirement instead of facing
c. have elected retiring early instead of facing
d. have elected to retire early rather than facing
e. have elected to retire early rather than face

OA : E
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by schumi_gmat » Thu Jan 13, 2011 6:44 pm
The idiom is X rather than Y, where X and Y are parallel.

here Y = (To) face and hence X should be to retire
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by Target2009 » Thu Jan 13, 2011 7:50 pm
tonebeeze wrote:Can someone explain to me why [spoiler](C)[/spoiler] is incorrect? What is the rule of thumb regarding using infinitives vs. -ing verb forms in this problem. Another tricky component to this problem is that the second "to" is implied, and not included.

A recent study has found that within the past few years, many doctors had elected early retirement rather than face the threats of lawsuits and the rising costs of malpractice insurance.

a. had elected early retirement rather than face
b. had elected early retirement instead of facing
c. have elected retiring early instead of facing
d. have elected to retire early rather than facing
e. have elected to retire early rather than face
My Pick: E
Why Not C : "Instead of" must alway followed by a noun. so Instead of facing is wrong. "Rather than" can follow both noun & verb.
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by prachich1987 » Thu Jan 13, 2011 10:37 pm
what's wrong with A here?
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by Target2009 » Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:51 am
prachich1987 wrote:what's wrong with A here?
AS per my knowledge, we use "had" to indicate some past event happened before some other past event.
In this question the non underline portion is in present tense so we can't use had here.
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:53 am
Hey guys,

Great discussion - and there's a lot of strategy to be learned from this one.

First, look at the answer choices: there's a classic 3/2 split here between "had" and "have", so you should know that you have to make a decision as to the proper verb tense.

Had: Past-perfect - the action must take place before a past-tense event
Have: Present-perfect - the action began in the past and is ongoing

Here, the modifier includes "within the past few years" - that's an ongoing action, so we need "have", and can therefore eliminate A and B.

For C, D, and E "have elected" is the same for each - the next decision point is that there are two options that are taken as equal, so they should be in parallel form. D does not do that ("to retire...facing"), so D is incorrect.

Between C and E, C uses "have elected retiring", which places "retiring" as an adverb describing "elected" as though the doctors made the decision while retiring. In order to separate two verbs so that one selects another, you need to space them with the infinitive form "to retire" or the word "that":

I have decided to retire
I have decided that I will retire
He has chosen to run

C is therefore incorrect, so E is the correct answer.
Brian Galvin
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Veritas Prep

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by GMATMadeEasy » Sun Jan 16, 2011 9:45 am
@Brian :
Between C and E, C uses "have elected retiring", which places "retiring" as an adverb describing "elected" as though the doctors made the decision while retiring.
retiring in answer choice C plays role of adverb or Noun ? I thougt retiring is a participle here playing role of noun . Could you explain please.
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by Target2009 » Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:54 pm
Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:Hey guys,

Great discussion - and there's a lot of strategy to be learned from this one.

First, look at the answer choices: there's a classic 3/2 split here between "had" and "have", so you should know that you have to make a decision as to the proper verb tense.

Had: Past-perfect - the action must take place before a past-tense event
Have: Present-perfect - the action began in the past and is ongoing

Here, the modifier includes "within the past few years" - that's an ongoing action, so we need "have", and can therefore eliminate A and B.

For C, D, and E "have elected" is the same for each - the next decision point is that there are two options that are taken as equal, so they should be in parallel form. D does not do that ("to retire...facing"), so D is incorrect.

Between C and E, C uses "have elected retiring", which places "retiring" as an adverb describing "elected" as though the doctors made the decision while retiring. In order to separate two verbs so that one selects another, you need to space them with the infinitive form "to retire" or the word "that":

I have decided to retire
I have decided that I will retire
He has chosen to run

C is therefore incorrect, so E is the correct answer.

Hi Brian / Instructors,
I got a different query for this sentence. Please help me with this.

A recent study has found that within the past few years, many doctors had elected early retirement rather than face the threats of lawsuits and the rising costs of malpractice insurance.

The part highlighted in green looks to me a clause , a subordinate clause. But I don't see any subordinating conjunction here, which can relate this clause to main clause.

Subordinate clause, independent clause.

Is this a correct structure.
If yes shouldn't Subordinate clause modify something from main/independent clause?
In case it act as modifier, what kind of modifier it would be , adverbial / adjective.
In above sentence what it it trying to modify / how it relate with main clause. ?
What all kind of structure a dependent & independent clause can take without any conjunctions?

Please help me with above queries.
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Abhishek
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by crimson2283 » Thu Feb 17, 2011 1:22 pm
Brian,

Could you also explain the difference between instead of and rather than?
Brian@VeritasPrep wrote:Hey guys,

Great discussion - and there's a lot of strategy to be learned from this one.

First, look at the answer choices: there's a classic 3/2 split here between "had" and "have", so you should know that you have to make a decision as to the proper verb tense.

Had: Past-perfect - the action must take place before a past-tense event
Have: Present-perfect - the action began in the past and is ongoing

Here, the modifier includes "within the past few years" - that's an ongoing action, so we need "have", and can therefore eliminate A and B.

For C, D, and E "have elected" is the same for each - the next decision point is that there are two options that are taken as equal, so they should be in parallel form. D does not do that ("to retire...facing"), so D is incorrect.

Between C and E, C uses "have elected retiring", which places "retiring" as an adverb describing "elected" as though the doctors made the decision while retiring. In order to separate two verbs so that one selects another, you need to space them with the infinitive form "to retire" or the word "that":

I have decided to retire
I have decided that I will retire
He has chosen to run

C is therefore incorrect, so E is the correct answer.
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by tetura84 » Fri Feb 18, 2011 4:15 am
I sense parallelism here.
A recent study has found that within the past few years, many doctors had elected early retirement rather than face the threats of lawsuits and the rising costs of malpractice insurance.

In non-underline portion we have, and the rising costs of malpractice insurance
and is a parallel marker here, so the phrase before AND must be in parallel with rising costs ... (not sure of the)

Now my understanding is, there are 2 reasons why doctors choose early retirement.
1. facing the threats of lawsuits
2. rising costs of malpractice insurance = and they must be parallel.

So, it drilled down to answer C

What's wrong in my logic?
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