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SC - Phrases placement

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SC - Phrases placement

by karthikpandian19 » Sun Jul 15, 2012 10:18 pm
At the next meeting, the manager will announce that she will raise the salary of the employee who sells the most merchandise next month, which is a component of a system that will try to incentivize the sales department to work as hard as the advertising department does.


(A) month, which is a component of a system that will try

(B) month, a component of a system that tries

(C) month, a component of a system trying

(D) month as a component of a system to try

(E) month as a component of a system that will try
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by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Mon Jul 16, 2012 1:09 am
The first issue you need to solve are TENSES. Is it better to use the Future Simple or the Present Simple and why? Is it possible to refer to the future but use a present tense?
Secondly, you should consider the problem of logic. Which answer choice correctly conveys the intended meaning and is logically structured?
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by UmangMathur » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:58 am
Kasia@MasterGMAT wrote:The first issue you need to solve are TENSES. Is it better to use the Future Simple or the Present Simple and why? Is it possible to refer to the future but use a present tense?
Secondly, you should consider the problem of logic. Which answer choice correctly conveys the intended meaning and is logically structured?
Dear Kasia,
I believe, you should re-frame your sentence from "The first issue you need to solve are TENSES." to "The first issue you need to solve is TENSES."

Please correct me if I am wrong. Please provide an explanation, it will help me in clearing my concepts.
Cheers!!!
Umang :-)

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by UmangMathur » Mon Jul 16, 2012 5:06 am
karthikpandian19 wrote:At the next meeting, the manager will announce that she will raise the salary of the employee who sells the most merchandise next month, which is a component of a system that will try to incentivize the sales department to work as hard as the advertising department does.


(A) month, which is a component of a system that will try

(B) month, a component of a system that tries

(C) month, a component of a system trying

(D) month as a component of a system to try

(E) month as a component of a system that will try

Dear Karthik,
The question sentence seems wrong, it should be, "At the next meeting, the manager will announce that she will raise the salary of the employee who will sell the most merchandise next..."
Cheers!!!
Umang :-)

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by karthikpandian19 » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:42 pm
Umang,

The sentence as written is correct as per Knewton and GMAT.

Verbs in the same sentence do not all need to be in the same tense, but we do need the future tense ("will try") here. We definitely need the future tense for "system will try" because we're talking about a system that the manager "will announce" in the future. However, we don't need the future tense for "who sells" because the future tense is already implied by the verb "will raise." We're describing the employee from the point of view of the future already, so we just need the present to indicate that (in the present of the future) she'll reward the employee who sells the most merchandise. If we said "she will raise the salary of the employee who will sell the most merchandise," it actually sounds like she "will raise" the salary of the employee who, even further in the future, "will sell" the most merchandise (as though she's raising the salary based on potential future sales). So the present tense is correct here.

The explanation is given below:
This sentence contains a modification error. Which modifies the expression immediately before it, month. It is not the month that is the component, and the correct answer will eliminate this error.

Choices B and C display verb tense errors; the manager will raise, and thus the system will try.

Choice D displays an idiomatic error; a system to try is not a valid expression.

The correct answer is E; the modification error is fixed, and there are no verb tense or idiomatic errors.

UmangMathur wrote:
karthikpandian19 wrote:At the next meeting, the manager will announce that she will raise the salary of the employee who sells the most merchandise next month, which is a component of a system that will try to incentivize the sales department to work as hard as the advertising department does.


(A) month, which is a component of a system that will try

(B) month, a component of a system that tries

(C) month, a component of a system trying

(D) month as a component of a system to try

(E) month as a component of a system that will try

Dear Karthik,
The question sentence seems wrong, it should be, "At the next meeting, the manager will announce that she will raise the salary of the employee who will sell the most merchandise next..."
Regards,
Karthik
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by vikram4689 » Tue Aug 14, 2012 1:36 am
i agree over the tense issue and its resolution mentioned by knewton, but my concern is regarding the meaning of sentence. Does E describes the intended meaning.

E says she will raise the salary .... as a component of system

Here an abstract modifier might be a good option as it provide context to previous clause and hence would describe that raising salary is a component of system that will try to incentivize performance

experts comments would be helpful!!
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by henryjejo » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:29 pm
A) month, which is a component of a system that will try (incorrect...modifier modifies month)

(B) month, a component of a system that tries (Correct...Modifies the act of raising the salary. The sentence implies that the manager will raise the salary. This act of raising is one of the components to incentivize the workers...)

(C) month, a component of a system trying (Incorrect: Of+Noun+Verbing...beware of this format. Its incorrect. See Ron's Sentence Correction Miscellaneous (Thursday with Ron section in MGMAT).)

(D) month as a component of a system to try (Requires a comma to modify the action)

(E) month as a component of a system that will try (As Above)

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by nailGmat2012 » Wed Sep 19, 2012 6:53 pm
Choice D displays an idiomatic error; a system to try is not a valid expression.

The correct answer is E; the modification error is fixed, and there are no verb tense or idiomatic errors.
I do not really understand why "to try" has been thrown out. To me, "to try" makes more sense as they put in place a system in order to try to do whatever...

when it is " a system that will try" , it's a prediction again... they hope the "system will try", but they are not sure.. they just pray that it does....to me, well the system was put in place "to try".

I feel this example is similar to :
They stepped on the road to block the traffic - Well they stepped with the intention of blocking the traffic.
They stepped on the road blocking the traffic - They did block the traffic, but not sure if that was intentional..
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by nailGmat2012 » Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:02 pm
(C) month, a component of a system trying (Incorrect: Of+Noun+Verbing...beware of this format. Its incorrect. See Ron's Sentence Correction Miscellaneous (Thursday with Ron section in MGMAT).)
Be cautious; Ron did mention that. But he also mentioned that the usage is right when the noun is actually the intended object of preposition.

I gave money to the beggar walking on the street - Here, the beggar is the intended object of preposition and so the sentence is correct. [courtesy: Ron]
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by karthikpandian19 » Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:00 pm
Hi,

please read the sentence after the underlined and then try using "to try" - it will not make any sense. It is idiomatic usage here and not the modifier issue
nailGmat2012 wrote:
(C) month, a component of a system trying (Incorrect: Of+Noun+Verbing...beware of this format. Its incorrect. See Ron's Sentence Correction Miscellaneous (Thursday with Ron section in MGMAT).)
Be cautious; Ron did mention that. But he also mentioned that the usage is right when the noun is actually the intended object of preposition.

I gave money to the beggar walking on the street - Here, the beggar is the intended object of preposition and so the sentence is correct. [courtesy: Ron]
Regards,
Karthik
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