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MGMAT Question

by akshatgupta87 » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:05 pm
Q.) During the past decade, the labor market in France has not been operating according to free market principles, but instead stifling functioning through its various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers.

A)principles, but instead stifling functioning through its various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers

B)principles, instead it has been functioning in a stifled manner as a result of various government regulations that restrict the hiring and firing of workers

C)principles, rather functioning despite being stifled as a result of government regulations that variously restrict worker hiring and firing

D)principles; the hiring and firing of workers is restricted there by various government regulations, its functioning being stifled

E)principles; instead, its functioning has been stifled by various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers

OA is E.
Someone explain...

Thanks,
~Akshat
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by Geva@EconomistGMAT » Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:08 pm
Begin with the easy eliminations: B, C and D.

B has a comma splice - two main clauses should be connected by a "connector" (a word such as but, however, despite, furthermore, or a semicolon which can act as a connector. In B, there is no connector - just a comma between "principles" and "instead".

C changes the meaning of the original sentence drastically. A means to say that the labor market's functioning is stifled, while C stresses the opposite fact - that it IS functioning (despite being stifled). There are various small inconsistencies in C, but that's the main reason to eliminate.

D has a fragment at the end "its functioning being stifled" - a clause without a verb.

So down to A and E, which commit none of these errors. The main difference is that a uses "stifling funtioning" - which seems to indicate that the labor market is itself doing the stifling through its government regulations, which doesn't make sense. The market is not imposing regulations on itself actively - these regulations are imposed ON the market, and the market's functioning IS stifled by the regulations (passive). Logically, E is the better sentence.
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by rishijhawar » Mon Jul 11, 2011 12:23 am
Geva, is there any specific rule to eliminate B. After reading your reply, I think B is not as sound as E but on the test day I would have selected B over E as still I find B as a good choice.

Can you please provide some other examples or threads of already-replied posts so that I can boost this concept? Apologies.

Also, can "has been" in both underlined and non-underlined part lead to E at first look, without getting too much into other reasons (assuming I have to eliminate B for connector-error).
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by Geva@EconomistGMAT » Mon Jul 11, 2011 12:31 am
rishijhawar wrote:Geva, is there any specific rule to eliminate B. After reading your reply, I think B is not as sound as E but on the test day I would have selected B over E as still I find B as a good choice.

Can you please provide some other examples or threads of already-replied posts so that I can boost this concept? Apologies.

Also, can "has been" in both underlined and non-underlined part lead to E at first look, without getting too much into other reasons (assuming I have to eliminate B for connector-error).
The comma splice is a nasty piece of work, but rare. The basic rule is that two clauses must be connected by a "connector" - either a connecting word such as "however, although, despite, but, yet, furthermore" etc, or by a semicolon which can act as the same.

Incorrect: I went home, My friend went to the party.

The two clause aren't connected by anything but a comma.

Correct:
I went home, but my friend went to the party
Although I went home, my friend went to the party
Despite the fact that I went home, my friend went to the party.
I went home; my friend went to the party
I went home, while my friend went to the party

All of the above correct the comma splice error by introducing some "connector". It doesn't have to come immediately between the two clauses (note the although and despite, which come at the beginning of the sentence), but it has to be there.
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by rishijhawar » Mon Jul 11, 2011 1:07 am
Geva, thanks for your rocket speed reply. I liked all your example.
But I am afraid I may falter when I face any such question? Any help on this? Anything which will make errors of this kind easily catchable? Sorry again.
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by tanviet » Mon Jul 11, 2011 1:25 am
D is correct grammatically but wrong logically.
In D, there is no relation between fuctioning and firing. There is only simultaneousness between the tw0
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by justin410 » Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:17 am
First step: eliminate B, C (instead is a an adverb, it can not function as a conjunction) D, (the hiring & firing - plural, the verb "is" is wrong, "there" has no antecent, more over, "being" wordy.)

Second step: eliminate A: (GMAT does not preper two present participle together), so E is a better choice.
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by Geva@EconomistGMAT » Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:37 am
rishijhawar wrote:Geva, thanks for your rocket speed reply. I liked all your example.
But I am afraid I may falter when I face any such question? Any help on this? Anything which will make errors of this kind easily catchable? Sorry again.
There's no magic trick here that I can think of, other than getting used to analyzing sentence structure. Look for clauses, and once you find two separate clauses, see if they are connected with a conjunction or a semicolon. I personally think of a clause as subject-verb loops - a clause will (usually) begin with a subject, and you cannot relax until you find the verb - the answer to the question "what does this subject do?".
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by Geva@EconomistGMAT » Mon Jul 11, 2011 2:41 am
Geva@MasterGMAT wrote:
rishijhawar wrote:Geva, thanks for your rocket speed reply. I liked all your example.
But I am afraid I may falter when I face any such question? Any help on this? Anything which will make errors of this kind easily catchable? Sorry again.
There's no magic trick here that I can think of, other than getting used to analyzing sentence structure. Look for clauses, and once you find two separate clauses, see if they are connected with a conjunction or a semicolon. I personally think of a clause as subject-verb loops - a clause will (usually) begin with a subject, and you cannot relax until you find the verb - the answer to the question "what does this subject do?".
Part of this is also getting used to "filter out" the less important clauses. A clause separated by commas on both sides is usually a "lower level" clause, and the commas indicate that the sentence can be read without it. For example, Geva, who is a teacher for Master GMAT, likes Broccoli.

The relative clause beginning with "who" is merely additional information about Geva (it answers the question "what does Geva do for a living", but it's not the main idea of the sentence, which is 'Geva...likes Broccoli".

Such a "lower level" clause separated by commas can be ommitted whehn reading for the main idea of the sentence, and those main clauses are the ones that you will later need to endure that they are connected by a conjunction.
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