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Is it down to concision

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Is it down to concision

by aflaam » Sat Feb 13, 2016 4:38 pm
Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be indistinguishable at first from ordinary fluctuations in the financial markets


B)so gradual so that they can be indistinguishable
C)so gradual that they are unable to be distinguished
D) gradual enough not to be indistinguishable
E)gradual enough so that one cannot distinguish them
Source GMAT prep
OA A
Why is C incorrect?
As far as i know, the construction so X that Y is perfectly fine in this situation but so as the one in OA.
What actually is the decision point here between A and C?
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by fabiocafarelli » Sun Feb 14, 2016 4:21 am
1. The form in option A, so gradual as to be indistinguishable is correct.

2. In option B, so gradual so that should be so gradual that.

3. In option C, so gradual that is fine, but that they are unable to be distinguished makes little sense. In they are unable, there is a doer: the SHIFTS. In to be distinguished, there is no stated doer: the construction is passive. The combination of the two creates an unclear notion. (One would say, for example that He was unable to make himself understood and not He was unable to be understood. The doer has got to be the one who performs the action expressed first in the finite verb and then in the infinitive.) Furthermore, in the GMAT the adjectives ABLE and UNABLE are applied to living organisms, not to phenomena such as ECONOMIC SHIFTS.

4. In option D, not to be indistinguishable means that the shifts are distinguishable, and this is the opposite of the intended meaning of the sentence, as that meaning is expressed in option A.

5. In option E, gradual enough so that is ungrammatical. Moreover, SO THAT introduces objectives, not consequences, as it attempts to do here.

Therefore, the form in option A, SO + ADJECTIVE + AS + INFINITIVE is a correct (though less-frequently used) alternative to SO + ADJECTIVE + THAT.


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Last edited by fabiocafarelli on Sat Feb 20, 2016 11:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by aflaam » Wed Feb 17, 2016 2:55 pm
Great explanation fabio.
this Sc now makes a lot of sense to me.
Thanks alot
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