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Relief for Victims....Confusing one!!!

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by mals24 » Tue Nov 04, 2008 5:28 am
Relief for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(A) Relief for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(B) For the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America, relief came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(C) Relief came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club – for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America.
(D) Relief came for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(E) The Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club was a rather unexpected source from which relief for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America came.

OA D

I found this one very confusing and tricky.
Please explain your answers and most importantly why other options are wrong.

Thanks :)
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by rohangupta83 » Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:43 am
- sorry I don't have a solution. Using my ear I was stuck between A and D and was lost between the two choices. I wonder why 'Relief came for' is preferred over just 'Relief for'.

Moreover, I can't seem to figure out what's wrong with the other choices.
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by gmat009 » Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:03 am
I was confused between B and D and still cannot find what's wrong with B
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by pandeyvineet24 » Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:47 am
i went for B as well.

but i think B is wrong because ...South America, relief
is relief modifying South America ?

not sure Why A is wrong and D is right ?
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by raunekk » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:45 am
i dont see any problem with A...

anyone??
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Re: Relief for Victims....Confusing one!!!

by logitech » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:55 am
mals24 wrote:Relief for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(A) Relief for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(B) For the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America, relief came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(C) Relief came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club – for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America.
(D) Relief came for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(E) The Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club was a rather unexpected source from which relief for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America came.

OA D

I found this one very confusing and tricky.
Please explain your answers and most importantly why other options are wrong.

Thanks :)
I think that there is meaning shift between A and D and this is the reason why D is the correct answer.

In option A) RELIEF FOR X came from bla bla

but actually what the sentence is trying to say is:

RELIEF CAME FOR X from bla bla, which is option D
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by schumi_gmat » Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:05 am
Let me try to explain this.

In A

The placement of "Came" sounds like the calamities came from unexpected source.

This is clear in D and hence i Chose D over A
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by raunekk » Tue Nov 04, 2008 10:06 am
I think that there is meaning shift between A and D and this is the reason why D is the correct answer.

In option A) RELIEF FOR X came from bla bla

but actually what the sentence is trying to say is:

RELIEF CAME FOR X from bla bla, which is option D

hmmm....

i dont feel there is any change of meaning in A,,,

i might be wrong..
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by reachac » Tue Nov 04, 2008 11:58 pm
raunekk wrote:
I think that there is meaning shift between A and D and this is the reason why D is the correct answer.

In option A) RELIEF FOR X came from bla bla

but actually what the sentence is trying to say is:

RELIEF CAME FOR X from bla bla, which is option D

hmmm....

i dont feel there is any change of meaning in A,,,

i might be wrong..
I agree with raunekk. There isn't an apparent 'change of meaning' in A.
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Re: Relief for Victims....Confusing one!!!

by dileepsinha » Wed Nov 05, 2008 12:48 am
mals24 wrote:Relief for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(A) Relief for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(B) For the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America, relief came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(C) Relief came from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club – for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America.
(D) Relief came for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club.
(E) The Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club was a rather unexpected source from which relief for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America came.

OA D

I found this one very confusing and tricky.
Please explain your answers and most importantly why other options are wrong.

Thanks :)
A says
Relief for x came from bla bla (X is highlighted, means probably relief for Y came from somewhere else, relief for z came from even somewhere else)- the stress is on "relief that came FOR X)

B means that in the opinion of the thousands of traumatized victims, relief came from .......(alters the intent)

C- misplaced modifier

D says
Relief came, but not from where it was expected, but from rather an unexpected source....D is more meaningful and more sensible than A

E- confusing and wordy

Any comments
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by mals24 » Wed Nov 05, 2008 3:44 am
schumi_gmat wrote:Let me try to explain this.

In A

The placement of "Came" sounds like the calamities came from unexpected source.

This is clear in D and hence i Chose D over A
I agree with schumi_gmat A does sound as if the calamities came from an unexpected source.

However between B&D I still cannot figure out why B is incorrect. The modifier in B "For the 1000s of...." correctly modifies "relief" and the sentence does not create any confusion either.
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by Jatinder » Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:22 am
Seems to be an interesting question.

And this can be a fodder for learning.
We need to get comments from experts on this.

Anyhow here is my reasonning
A. Subject is tooo far from the verb
B. My choice
C: the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club – for the

for is modifying club or unexpected source


D: My 2nd choice :-)
E: Passive, wordy
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by amitabhprasad » Wed Nov 05, 2008 8:14 am
I am confused what's wrong with "A"
Isn't subject "Relief" should be placed next to the modifying phrase "for the...".
Wondering what's the source of the question and OE
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by sam98034 » Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:38 am
A says: Relief for the victims came from an unexpected source - M
B says: For the victims, relief came from an unexpected source - M
C says: Relief came from an unexpected source - M - for the victims
D says: Relief came for victims from an unexpected source - M
E says : Y was an unexpected source from which relief for the victims came

The whole point of this sentence is to emphasize the unexpectedness of the relief. In order to emphasize this it needs to be at the end or begining, like a punchline. Scratch C off. D we can scratch out for a different reason. D can be taken two ways. Insert 'a vampire' for relief and you get...

"A vampire came for the thousands of traumatized victims of one of the worst natural calamities to hit the eastern coast of South America from a rather unexpected source – the Silicon Valley Millionaires’ Club."

Relief comes from people, not for people. It didn't make itself come, and depending on how you read it you might take it that way(Watch out! The relief is coming for you).

It's kind of like saying, "While walking through the door, a skeleton fell on top of me" You can take this as you walked through a door and a skeleton fell on you or a skeleton walked through the door and then fell on you. The latter sounds crazy, but could be taken that way.

B emphasizes the victim, A emphasizes the source...I think we're going for the latter. I vote A.
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Re: Relief for Victims....Confusing one!!!

by lunarpower » Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:07 pm
this is a horrible problem.
i'd say (a) is the best choice, but there are at least two choices, (b) and (c), that simply aren't wrong enough to be wrong answers on the real gmat.

ironically, (d) is the worst of the choices, because it's the only choice that's genuinely ambiguous: it can be read as though the natural calamity itself came from the millionaires' club.

so let's see. we have a terrible question, not AT ALL written in the actual style of the gmat - and the "official" answer is actually the worst choice listed.
and finally, the sentence itself doesn't even make sense. why would a group of rich people, especially in a socially conscious area such as silicon valley, be an "unexpected source" for philanthropy?

whatever source this problem came from, run! run for your life!
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