Usage of word 'fact'

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reply2spg: Legendary Member; Posts: 1261; Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 3:46 am; Thanked: 27 times; GMAT Score:570

by reply2spg » Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:41 am

All,

I have seen number of times lots of students give a reason of word 'fact' in the sentence to eleminate that option. What is wrong with the word 'fact' and is it not acceptable in GMAT?

There are few other words, which are 99% times are wrong, such as 'being', 'whether or not' and so on. Does word 'fact' is one among them?

T&R,
reply2spg

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:41 am

josh@knewton: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 85; Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:43 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Location: New York City; Thanked: 18 times

by josh@knewton » Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:56 pm

I am having a little trouble understanding your question.

That said, I can't imagine a scenario in which the word "fact" would be wrong because of a usage issue.

Let me know if you have more questions,

Josh

Josh Anish
Senior Editor, Knewton
https://www.knewton.com

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reply2spg: Legendary Member; Posts: 1261; Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 3:46 am; Thanked: 27 times; GMAT Score:570

by reply2spg » Tue Mar 30, 2010 4:43 pm

Thanks for your reply Josh,

Here is the example from 1000 SC.

A discussion of our nations foreign policy must begin with the fact of there being an independent Western Europe which now thinks of itself in trans-nationalist terms.

A. A discussion of our nations foreign policy must begin with the fact of there being
B. Beginning any discussion of our nations foreign policy must be the fact of there being
C. Any discussion of our nations foreign policy must begin with the fact that there is
D. Any discussion of our nations foreign policy must begin by acknowledging the existence of
E. To begin discussing our nations foreign policy thee must be an acknowledgment of the fact that

here what is wrong with C? C has a word 'fact' in it.

josh@knewton wrote:I am having a little trouble understanding your question.

That said, I can't imagine a scenario in which the word "fact" would be wrong because of a usage issue.

Let me know if you have more questions,

Josh

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student22: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 216; Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2009 10:26 am; Thanked: 16 times

by student22 » Tue Mar 30, 2010 5:16 pm

I think, all they mean is that it's usually wordy when compared to other answer choices. Here, the correct answer is D. "acknowledging the existence of" just sounds more elegant than "with the fact that there is."

Also, C, changes the meaning I think. How do you begin something with a fact? You could begin by acknowledging a fact, or understanding a fact, or stating a fact. But not fact by itself.

But, otherwise you're allowed to use fact. Here's a sentence that uses fact correctly: "The fact that he overslept for work is not a good reason to fire him."

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