recording system

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anant03: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 70; Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:48 am

by anant03 » Wed Sep 16, 2015 8:27 am

A recording system was so secretly installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office that even Theodore C. Sorensen, the white house counsel, did not know it exist.

A) A recording system was so secretly installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office that

B) So secret was recording system installation and operation in the Kennedy oval office

C) It was so secret that a recording system was installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office

D) A recording system that was so secretly installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office

E) Installed and operated so secretly in the Kennedy oval office was a recording system that

OAA

My question is in option [spoiler] C[spoiler] does IT serve as an EXPLETIVE? If no then please EXPERTS advise and correct me.

[/spoiler]

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Sep 16, 2015 8:27 am

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ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pmFollowed by: 247 members; Thanked: 1443 times

by ceilidh.erickson » Wed Sep 16, 2015 2:37 pm

Please always post the source of your questions - this one is from GMATPrep.

A recording system was so secretly installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office that even Theodore C. Sorensen, the white house counsel, did not know it existed.

A) A recording system was so secretly installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office that
B) So secret was recording system installation and operation in the Kennedy oval office
C) It was so secret that a recording system was installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office
D) A recording system that was so secretly installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office
E) Installed and operated so secretly in the Kennedy oval office was a recording system that

In C, you're correct: "it" is an expletive (a word filling in the syntactic position of another). We can understand it to mean "the fact that a recording was installed was so secret..."

On the GMAT, this usage of "it" shows up a lot more often in wrong answers than right answers. The GMAT prefers "it" to be a pronoun standing in for a specific noun. The expletive "it" is usually a more roundabout way of phrasing an idea. C, for example, is not necessarily grammatically incorrect, it's just so complicated a structure that the meaning is unclear.

Did that answer your question?

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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anant03: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 70; Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:48 am

by anant03 » Wed Sep 16, 2015 9:58 pm

Hi Ceilidh ,

Thanks for your reply.

Can you please tell me when should we use an EXPLETIVE? Because I marked option C just because of EXPLETIVE.

Also please explain me why we choose A over C.

Thanks

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Thu Sep 17, 2015 4:16 am

anant03 wrote:Also please explain me why we choose A over C.

C: It was so secret that a recording system was installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office even Theodore C. Sorensen, the white house counsel, did not know it existed.
Here, the referent for the it in red is the following that-clause in red.
If we replace the it in red with the that-clause in red, we get:
That a recording system was installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office was so secret even Theodore C. Sorensen, the white house counsel, did not know it existed.
Here, so secret even is unidiomatic.
The correct idiom is SO X THAT Y, as in the following:
so secret THAT even Theodore C. Sorensen, the white house counsel, did not know it existed.
Eliminate C.

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anant03: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 70; Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:48 am

by anant03 » Thu Sep 17, 2015 7:36 am

Hi Mitch ,

Thanks for the explanation, but I don't get this properly even though read many times.

Can you please explain more about this.

Also please explain that when should we use an EXPLETIVE ?

Your reply would be highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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thang: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 111; Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 2:50 am; Thanked: 11 times

by thang » Thu Sep 17, 2015 7:56 pm

why E is wrong, pls help

because "so" is far from "stalled and operated"

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thang: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 111; Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 2:50 am; Thanked: 11 times

by thang » Thu Sep 17, 2015 8:00 pm

C is wrong because C contain two INDEPENDENT CLAUSES.

it is important that you learn gmat, gmat is hard

above sentence is similar to C

it is screte that this seystem is stalled , Mr,A dose not know it is exist.

two INdependent clauses withough connection , meaning connection and grammaticla connection

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anant03: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 70; Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:48 am

by anant03 » Fri Sep 18, 2015 1:58 am

Hi Experts ,

Your reply on this would be highly appreciated.

Thanks,

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Fri Sep 18, 2015 2:00 pm

anant03 wrote:Hi Mitch ,

Thanks for the explanation, but I don't get this properly even though read many times.

Can you please explain more about this.

An alternate line of reasoning:

C: It was so secret that a recording system was installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office even Theodore C. Sorensen, the White House counsel, did not know it existed.
Here, the red portion and the blue portion each constitute a complete sentence that can stand on its own:
It was so secret that a recording system was installed and operated in the Kennedy oval office.
Even Theodore C. Sorensen, the White House counsel, did not know it existed.
Two complete sentences must be linked by a connector such as a conjunction or a semi-colon.
Eliminate C.

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