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Russian Composers

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by karmayogi » Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:30 am
goelmohit2002 wrote:OA is "D".
Surprised :shock:

That means, considering Xs the subject, we can write the sentence as:

Xs united based on an ideal of a national music based on folk melodies and themes.

Could someone explain??? Idiom is the only reasoning I can think of.
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Re: Russian Composers

by ken3233 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:39 am
goelmohit2002 wrote:
ken3233 wrote: My guess is that the answer is "A".

Clearly, "A" and "D" are the only possible answers.
Can you please tell why you kicked out "B", "C" and "E" ?

Thanks
Mohit
The nineteenth-century Russian composers known as "The Five" were united by their holding an ideal of a national music based on folk melodies and themes.

(A) were united by their holding
(B) had as their uniting ideal
(C) united each other with
(D) united based on
(E) were united with

B - This would repeat "ideal", which is redundant. Also, in this case for some reason "had as" is less grammatical than "were." As a native English speaker, I can intuit the incorrect usage, but I do not know the grammar rule that applies here.

C - This is incorrect because "united each other" is illogical and ungrammatical. I do not believe that the verb "unite" can be used reflexively in this case. Again, this is something I can intuit, without being able to explain why.

E - This is illogical because it changes the meaning of the sentence, literally saying that the composers "united" with an ideal. The sentence is supposed to say that the composers themselves had a sense of unity because they shared an ideal.
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by tuscan21 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:26 pm
what's the source of this question?
Is it possible to be on the GMAT?
It's one of the trickiest (and nastiest) SR questions I've met because any of the five answers are bad.
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by gmat740 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:03 pm
Hello Everyone

with my first attempt and landed up with Option E

and I still don't find enough reason to Eliminate E and choose D

can someone please explain??

Is the OA correct
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by goelmohit2002 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:13 pm
Yes, I too find "D" to be really awkward....
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by quocbao » Tue Mar 24, 2009 6:08 pm
The nineteenth-century Russian composers known as "The Five" were united by their holding an ideal of a national music based on folk melodies and themes.

(A) were united by their holding
(B) had as their uniting ideal
(C) united each other with
(D) united based on
(E) were united with
I think we can look the question in an other way. The differences between the answers is the passive - active voice. And I think we don't use passive voice here (the composers united themselves, they decided to do that, no one help them)

So I eliminate A,E. B is kicked out because of past tense. So only C & D. Clearly we will choose D because D is better with idiomatic

just my 0.1$ :-p
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by gmat062011 » Tue Aug 23, 2011 3:50 pm
Don't we require verb "were" before "united" in option D. Please help me to understand.
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by GmatKiss » Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:36 pm
OA :E :?
Last edited by GmatKiss on Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by GmatKiss » Sat Sep 17, 2011 12:16 am
Experts pls help!

TIA,
GK
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by gunjan1208 » Sat Sep 17, 2011 12:49 am
I could choose D & E. But please tell me the reason to kick E out, please!
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