Tobacco SC

Expert replies

aj5105: Legendary Member; Posts: 1169; Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:34 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 25 times

by aj5105 » Sat May 30, 2009 9:15 pm

In an effort to reduce the number of fires started by cigarettes, a major tobacco company is test-marketing a cigarette in which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, thereby slowing the rate at which it burns and lowering the heat it generates.

A.in which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, thereby slowing

B.in which they use thin layers of extra paper in decreasing the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, which slows

C.that uses thin layers of extra paper to decrease the amount of oxygen when it enters the cigarette, thereby slowing

D.for which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen that enters the cigarette, and thereby slowing

E.using thin layers of extra paper in decreasing the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, which slows

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sat May 30, 2009 9:15 pm

Jatinder: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 280; Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2008 4:18 am; Thanked: 5 times; GMAT Score:610

by Jatinder » Sat May 30, 2009 9:56 pm

IMO A
problems with other options:--
B- "they" and "which"
C-"it"
D- "and"
E-"which"

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rahulg83: Legendary Member; Posts: 575; Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 2:58 amFollowed by: 4 members; Location: India; Thanked: 18 times; GMAT Score:710

by rahulg83 » Sat May 30, 2009 10:02 pm

IMO A

nervesofsteel: Legendary Member; Posts: 594; Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:51 pm; Thanked: 12 times

by nervesofsteel » Sat May 30, 2009 11:38 pm

imo A

only A makes sense

pratikgandhi: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 33; Joined: Sat May 09, 2009 10:50 am

by pratikgandhi » Sun May 31, 2009 2:19 am

IMO A. What is the OA?

B. they cannot refer to tobacco company,
B. use thin layer of extra paper "in decreasing" (sounds incorrect)
C. when "it" enters the cigarrette. what enters.. the oxygen or the thin paper.
D. "and" is not required
E. "in decreasing" same as in B

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willkillgmat: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 11; Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 3:55 am

by willkillgmat » Sun May 31, 2009 4:59 am

The answer is 'A'

B.

- Uses they (no plural noun)

C.

that uses (cigarette that uses wrong)

D.

and not required.

E.

using (is wrong here)(it seems like cigarette is using something for itself)

aj5105: Legendary Member; Posts: 1169; Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:34 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 25 times

by aj5105 » Tue Jun 02, 2009 8:27 pm

OA [A]

Kajiabeat: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 41; Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 5:10 pm

by Kajiabeat » Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:50 pm

I'm not sure about D,

1."for which" vs."in which", I guess "in which" is a little better as it seems more concrete, but for which is also fine.

2. "entering the cigarette" vs"that enters the cigarette", both are OK, a red herring.

3."thereby"vs"and thereby",both are OK. in the case of "thereby", it is a conjunction, and followed by an elliptical form of "to slow"---"slowing"; in the case of "and thereby", "and" is conjunction and "thereby"is an adverb, which also followed by an ellipitcal "slowing" (I guess "slow" should be parallel to "decrease")

Am I right about all the above ideas? Please correct me if anything is wrong.

thank you very much!

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by lunarpower » Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:50 am

Kajiabeat wrote:1."for which" vs."in which", I guess "in which" is a little better as it seems more concrete, but for which is also fine.

"for which" is wrong.
this isn't an idiom issue -- it's an issue of literal meaning: these things happen in the cigarette, not "for" the cigarette.

2. "entering the cigarette" vs"that enters the cigarette", both are OK, a red herring.

yes.

3."thereby"vs"and thereby",both are OK. in the case of "thereby", it is a conjunction, and followed by an elliptical form of "to slow"---"slowing"; in the case of "and thereby", "and" is conjunction and "thereby"is an adverb, which also followed by an ellipitcal "slowing" (I guess "slow" should be parallel to "decrease")

this is incorrect. "thereby" is an adjective, and so may be ignored in a grammatical analysis. (it can't be ignored in an analysis of the meaning of the sentence, but, like other adverbs and adjectives, it has no effect on grammar.)
therefore, and + thereby + --ing has the same restrictions and grammatical significance as and + --ing; same for the construction without "and".

"and (+ thereby) + slowing" is incorrect, because "slowing" is not parallel to anything in the earlier part of the sentence. (i don't know what "elliptical form" means, so i can't comment on that.)

comma (+ thereby) + slowing is correct -- it modifies the action of the preceding clause, as is required of COMMA + --ING modifiers.

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GmatKiss: Legendary Member; Posts: 2789; Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:19 amFollowed by: 43 members; Location: Chennai, India; Thanked: 206 times; GMAT Score:640

by GmatKiss » Thu Sep 08, 2011 7:04 am

aj5105 wrote:In an effort to reduce the number of fires started by cigarettes, a major tobacco company is test-marketing a cigarette in which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, thereby slowing the rate at which it burns and lowering the heat it generates.

A.in which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, thereby slowing

B.in which they use thin layers of extra paper in decreasing the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, which slows

C.that uses thin layers of extra paper to decrease the amount of oxygen when it enters the cigarette, thereby slowing

D.for which thin layers of extra paper are used to decrease the amount of oxygen that enters the cigarette, and thereby slowing

E.using thin layers of extra paper in decreasing the amount of oxygen entering the cigarette, which slows

Answer is A

force5: Legendary Member; Posts: 582; Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:48 amFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 61 times; GMAT Score:740

by force5 » Thu Sep 08, 2011 7:22 am

great answer guys....

saurabh99: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2014 12:14 am

by saurabh99 » Mon Dec 22, 2014 11:22 pm

I still cannot figure out why C is wrong.
Can someone explain

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by [email protected] » Tue Dec 23, 2014 7:37 am

Hi saurabh99,

There are a few problems with answer C:

1) The word "when" is supposed to reference a specific time, but there isn't a specific time that oxygen enters a cigarette.

2) The pronoun "it" is vague.

3) The verbs "enters" and "slowing" are not parallel.

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Wed Dec 24, 2014 1:05 am

i received a private message about this thread.

1) The word "when" is supposed to reference a specific time, but there isn't a specific time that oxygen enters a cigarette.

^^ not really.
clearly, oxygen does enter a cigarette at some point in time. and, in a different context, this sort of construction could totally make sense.
e.g., This cigarette causes oxygen to cool rapidly when the oxygen enters the filter --> the oxygen actually cools at that specific time.

the problem is that, in the context of this problem, the construction is nonsense.
taken literally, "decrease the amount of oxygen when it enters the cigarette" suggests that there's X amount of oxygen prior to entry, but, WHEN that oxygen enters the cigarette, the quantity is reduced to some fraction of X amount.
clearly nonsense-a cigarette can't destroy atoms of an element.

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Wed Dec 24, 2014 1:06 am

2) The pronoun "it" is vague.

in context, it's clear that "it" = oxygen, and oxygen is a singular noun. for the GMAT, that's good enough.

more importantly, talking about "vague pronouns" sets a bad precedent for the GMAT, which tests no such thing.
if the GMAT tests a pronoun error, that error will be black-and-white. e.g., singular pronoun vs. plural noun, or pronoun vs. something that isn't a noun.

trying to eliminate "vague pronouns" is going to lead to a very large frequency of false positives (= inadvertently eliminating the correct answer).

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