reply2spg wrote:
Also I don't think there is any difference between 'to' and 'in order to'

Please elaborate, thanks

hi reply2spg,

Apart from the fact that "allocate in order to" is idiomatically incorrect and more wordy than "allocate to", there is a subtle difference between these two expressions:

1: Allocate revenues to the purchasing of x = provides the entity/purpose to which the revenues are allocated

2: Allocate revenues in order to purchase x = states that revenues are allocated. It does not state who or what the revenues are allocated to. Then it states that the purpose of allocating revenues to that unknown entity is to purchase x.

Thus the second expression is more wordy and does not provide complete information about the allocation.

I hope that addresses your concern.

Thanks,

Payal

mundasingh123 wrote:grrrr allocate for or allocate to.
purchasing or purchase grrr

I understand the concerns that you have raised about this question.

IMO, this question appears to test two concepts that do not have a very clear precedence in OG12.

Between choices A and E, we can form a 2 x 2 matrix as follows:
"Purchase" "Allocate"
Choice A purchasing of books allocate to

Choice E purchase of books allocate for

Use of Purchase = In colloquial English, "purchase of" is preferred usage as compared to "purchasing of". However, I have not found precedence in OG, that indicates that "purchasing of books" is incorrect. (Note: For e-GMAT students, this is discussed in Level 1 Concept - Parallelism Helpful Tips)

However, if in place of purchase, the word "print" was used, then "printing of books" would be correct since "print of books" is clearly incorrect (as stated in Question # 28 in OG12 - In this question the word "harvest" is used). Basically there are two categories of verbs -

A: verbs that can also act as noun - such as purchase, release can act as nouns in this form itself - purchase of books, release of gases.

B: verbs that need to be modified to act as noun - print, harvest, raise, realize cannot act as nouns till they are converted to printing, harvesting, raising, realization.

Use of "allocate" - In colloquial English, both "allocate to" and "allocate for" are considered correct. However OG considers "allocate to" as the preferred form (this does not mean that "allocate for" is incorrect).

Among all questions in OG 12, 11, and Verbal Review, I found only one question in Verbal Review # 70, which uses this idiom. In this question, the correct answer uses "allocate to" idiom, indicating that OG considers "allocate to" as a preferred idiom. However, in the answer explanation, OG does not explicitly state that "allocate for" is incorrect.

It would be great if someone from Kaplan could shed more light on what OG considers as correct and incorrect with regards to this idiom. There may be some precedence in other versions of OG.