SC --Travelers vs Inspectors

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Chaitanya_1986: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 183; Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:29 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 7 times

by Chaitanya_1986 » Wed May 04, 2011 4:09 am

No matter how patiently they explain their reasons for confiscating certain items, travelers often treat customs inspectors like wanton poachers rather than government employees.
(A) travelers often treat customs inspectors like wanton poachers rather than government employees
(B) travelers often treat customs inspectors as wanton poachers instead of government employees
(C) travelers often treat customs inspectors as if they were not government employees but wanton poachers
(D) customs inspectors are often treated by travelers as if they were wanton poachers rather than government employees
(E) customs inspectors are often treated not like government employees but wanton poachers by travelers

OA is D

MY approach :-

Since opening modifier tells us about the Customs Inspectors not travelers, this leaves us with D and E. In D the usage "They" thought like it may refer to either travels or inspectors.... E is also seems wrong for me because "as" is missing after BUT....

So any one explain me how D can be correct here????

Could any see any thing other than this?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed May 04, 2011 4:09 am

VivianKerr: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1035; Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:13 amFollowed by: 365 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 474 times

by VivianKerr » Wed May 04, 2011 6:36 am

The main error here is one of modification. An opening clause describing an action with a comma at the end of it must be immediately followed by the person or thing DOING the action.

"No matter how patiently they explain their reasons for confiscating certain items," is the opening clause here. We can ask, who is logically doing the "confiscating"? It wouldn't be the travelers, since it's illogical that they would confiscate their own belongings.

Based on this logic alone, we can eliminate A, B, and C.

For E, there are several issues. "By travelers" is far from its verb "treated" and has faulty parallelism. Since the first part of the idiom begins with "like", we would want "like" to follow the word "but" as well.

That is why it is D.

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atulmangal: Legendary Member; Posts: 1112; Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:16 amFollowed by: 49 members; Thanked: 77 times

by atulmangal » Wed May 04, 2011 8:06 am

@VivianKerr

Thanks for your post...i agree that Op D is better than Op E...but just one question: the use of THEY in Op D....here i agree that meaningfully THEY should refer to CUSTOM INSPECTORS but still the word TRAVELERS is also there...so should we consider this correct??? Actually i have seen so many questions where people have different views about pronoun ambiguity...some say that Op D is ambiguous and some like me believe that until unless the meaning is clear...pronoun is okay...i believe ambiguity should come in cases like this: Example

John told his friend that he had won the election.

In this case i believe pronoun HE is ambiguous but not in Op D...please suggest m i thinking in right direction????

Last edited by atulmangal on Thu May 05, 2011 2:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Chaitanya_1986: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 183; Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:29 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 7 times

by Chaitanya_1986 » Wed May 04, 2011 8:23 am

I know that pronoun ambiguity error will not come if we are using the pronoun correctly in Subject and object positions to the referent. But in this question the usage of THEY is in If clause...So is this still valid???

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mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Wed May 04, 2011 8:28 am

VivianKerr wrote:The main error here is one of modification. An opening clause describing an action with a comma at the end of it must be immediately followed by the person or thing DOING the action.

"No matter how patiently they explain their reasons for confiscating certain items," is the opening clause here. We can ask, who is logically doing the "confiscating"? It wouldn't be the travelers, since it's illogical that they would confiscate their own belongings.

Based on this logic alone, we can eliminate A, B, and C.

For E, there are several issues. "By travelers" is far from its verb "treated" and has faulty parallelism. Since the first part of the idiom begins with "like", we would want "like" to follow the word "but" as well.

That is why it is D.

Hi Vivian what do you feel about chaitanya_1986's reason for eliminating E

E is also seems wrong for me because "as" is missing after BUT....

I Seek Explanations Not Answers

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apex231: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 127; Joined: Mon May 11, 2009 10:04 am; Thanked: 5 times

by apex231 » Wed May 04, 2011 6:06 pm

Good point, even I have the same doubt..how can we be sure which one is the right option?

atulmangal wrote:@VivianKerr

Thanks for your post...i agree that Op D is better than Op E...but just one question: the use of THEY in Op D....here i agree that meaningfully THEY should refer to CUSTOM INSPECTORS but still the word TRAVELERS is also there...so should we consider this correct??? Actually i have seen so many questions where people have different views about pronoun ambiguity...some say that Op D is ambiguous and some like me believe that until unless the meaning is clear...pronoun is okay...i believe ambiguity should come in cases like this: Example

John told his friend that he had won the election.

In this case i believe JOHN is ambiguous not in Op D...please suggest m i thinking in right direction????

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VivianKerr: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1035; Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:13 amFollowed by: 365 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 474 times

by VivianKerr » Wed May 04, 2011 7:19 pm

That's a really good question. I think it all comes down to context. For pronoun ambiguity issues, it's usually quite apparent if there is an ambiguous pronoun. In the context of (D), there is no confusion regarding who "they" are since in context "treated as if" is idiomatically correct. If the prepositional phrase "by travelers" was omitted, the sentence would still make sense.

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EducationAisle: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 434; Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:42 pmFollowed by: 46 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 91 times

by EducationAisle » Wed May 04, 2011 9:21 pm

Chaitanya_1986 wrote:I know that pronoun ambiguity error will not come if we are using the pronoun correctly in Subject and object positions to the referent.

Correct.

Chaitanya_1986 wrote:But in this question the usage of THEY is in If clause...So is this still valid???

Why not? A clause is a clause is a clause. How/why should it be any different if it is in the 'if' clause? Let's take a simpler example:

Children would attend the parties only if they are invited.

'they' can refer to parties and children, but both - 'grammatically (structurally)' and 'logically', 'they' is referring to 'children' and is hence correct.

Ashish
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Chaitanya_1986: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 183; Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:29 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 7 times

by Chaitanya_1986 » Thu May 05, 2011 2:27 am

Thanks Asish....So, i went directly by rules and got caught....Now i got the point that rules are rules that should be used in line with grammatical and logical usage......

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