impose

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impose

by hitmewithgmat » Tue Feb 17, 2009 7:42 pm
61. Among lower-paid workers, union members are less likely than nonunion members to be enrolled in lower-end insurance plans imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend less time with each.
(A) imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend
(B) imposing stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients, and spending
(C) that impose stricter limits on medical services, require doctors to see more patients, and spend
(D) that impose stricter limits on medical services and require doctors to see more patients, spending
(E) that impose stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients and spending


I chose C.
OA after discussion.
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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Re: impose

by x2suresh » Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:38 pm
hitmewithgmat wrote:61. Among lower-paid workers, union members are less likely than nonunion members to be enrolled in lower-end insurance plans imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend less time with each.
(A) imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend
(B) imposing stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients, and spending
(C) that impose stricter limits on medical services, require doctors to see more patients, and spend
(D) that impose stricter limits on medical services and require doctors to see more patients, spending
(E) that impose stricter limits on medical services, requiring doctors to see more patients and spending

I chose C.
OA after discussion.
that is required

A,B are out.

Insurance plans can't spend less time with each other. --> C ,E are out.
also in E impose -- requiring --> not parallel

D is not great but better choice here.

require doctors to see more patients, spending
--> here spending should modify "doctors"

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OA

by hitmewithgmat » Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:47 pm
OA is D.
great, thanks!

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by Stacey Koprince » Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:47 am
I received a PM asking me to comment on (a) how to tackle this question overall, and (b) why C is not acceptable. (Just a note to others: it's very useful, when posting a question, to detail what you do and don't understand about that question - it's easier for others to address your concerns if they know what your concerns are!)

This is definitely a tricky setup.

Among <big group>, <sub-group A> are less likely than <sub-group B> to X.

In the original sentence, X is a very complex clause with two sets of compound modifiers:
to be enrolled in <Y> imposing <modifier1> and requiring<modifier1> [to see <modifier 2> and spend <modifier2>]

The first set of modifiers modifies something before "imposing"; in addition, the "imposing" and "requiring" parts are parallel. The second set modifies something before "to see"; in addition, the "see" and "spend" parts are parallel.

So, let's start with: what are they modifiying? Nouns or clauses? Something, someone, or some clause is "imposing limits" and "requiring doctors" - what is it? It's the "insurance plans." That's a noun, so we want a noun modifier setup. Those -ing words that introduce modifying phrases or clauses indicate adverbial modifiers, not noun modifiers. Eliminate A. Scan the answer. Eliminate B for repeating the error.

You could also have started with the second set: what do they modify? They modify "doctors" and parallelism dictates that we read it as "require doctors to see more" and "<require doctors to> spend less time." The plan actually requires doctors to spend less time with patients? That meaning seems... off. More logically, spending less time would seem to be a consequence of having to see more patients in the first place.

C, D, and E all start with "that." "That" is an indicator of a noun modifier, so that's good. Let's check parallelism next, since we know compound modifiers need to be parallel. This is where it can get a little messy, because we also have "nested" modifiers. So go back and pick apart that meaning:

For simplicity, I'll just type one form of each relevant word. We've got: impose, require, see, spend. Should they all be parallel? Are only some parallel to others? What is each one talking about? Let's see.

The "insurance plans" both impose limits and require doctors, so those two should be parallel. Do the plans see more patients? Nope - the plan requires the doctors to see more patients. Do the plans spend less time with the patients? No - that's also the doctors. Do the plans require doctors to spend less time with patients? I hope not! The "spending less time" thing is a consequence of the previous requirement (having to see more patients).

C says: impose, require, and spend. This says that "insurance plans that impose limits, <insurance plans that> require doctors to see more patients, and <insurance plans that> spend less time with each. That last one has a nonsensical meaning - eliminate.
D says impose and require, spending. This says that "insurance plans that impose limits and <insurance plans that> require doctors to see more patients, spending less time with each." The ", spending" set-up indicates an adverbial modifier. Why are they spending less time with each? Not because they are doctors (noun) or because of the patients (noun), but because the doctors are required to see more patients (clause). Adverbial modifiers modify clauses. So this works.
E says impose, requiring and spending. This says "insurance plans that impose limits, requiring doctors to see more and spending less time with each." The ", requiring... and spending" pieces indicate a compoun adverbial modifier, so the fact that the plans impose limits should result in (a) doctors seeing more patients, and (b) someone (unclear who) spending less time with each. Are the doctors spending less time with the patients? Technically, (a) and (b) should be able to stand completely alone. If I strip out (a), I'm left with "insurance plans that impose stricter limits on medical services, spending less time with each." Who's actually spending less time? I don't know. Meaning is ambiguous - eliminate.
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by x2suresh » Wed Feb 18, 2009 11:11 am
Stacy,

Great explanation!
+1

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Thank you!

by hitmewithgmat » Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:15 pm
Thank you so much for detailed explanation, Stacey!

It always puzzles me a lot and I thought I knew how to tackle this, but everytime I have confronted these types of questions, they definitely threw me like a sumo wrestler!

Thanks you for being such a wonderul moderator for us!

Once again, I deeply thank you!

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by imhimanshu » Wed Jun 02, 2010 12:43 am
Hi Stacey,

Thanks for the explanantion!


Could you please let me know what is "laughing" modifying here in the below example. Is it God or Harold.

"Harold invented his own god laughing maniacally at the sight of a face in a cloud."

From your above post it should have a noun modifier.

But the grammer source is saying that laughing could be seen as a reduced relative clause that is modifying god.

Please explain whether the above sentence is correct or am I missing something?
Thanks !

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by Stacey Koprince » Fri Jun 04, 2010 7:44 am
FYI: a reduced relative clause is a noun modifier - it's just a more specific category. A "reduced" relative clause is one which simply does not have a relative pronoun at the beginning. For example: "The student I taught was tall" rather than "the student that I taught was tall."

A couple of things:
(1) reduced relative clauses often introduce ambiguity into the meaning; we don't see these a lot (at least, not in correct sentences!) on the GMAT

(2) if you do see an SC split between including a relative pronoun and dropping the relative pronoun, and you have to guess, choose one that does include the relative pronoun

(3) for the people who are freaking out right now thinking, "Wait, now I have to remember what a reduced relative clause is?": I had no idea what that term meant till I just read it in imhimanshu's post. I looked it up. And now I'm going to (mostly) forget about it because, clearly, one can score in the 99th percentile without worrying about that term. :) (I'll remember it, of course, in order to answer other students' questions in future... but not for the test.)

Anyway, the short answer: yes, without a comma, the god is laughing, not Harold.
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by imhimanshu » Sun Jun 06, 2010 9:56 pm
Thanks Stacey for the info !

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by Target2009 » Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:04 pm
Good Que My choice D
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by Target2009 » Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:48 pm
Among lower-paid workers, union members are less likely than nonunion members to be enrolled in lower-end insurance plans imposing stricter limits on medical services and requiring doctors to see more patients, and spend less time with each.
Stacey Koprince wrote: So, let's start with: what are they modifiying? Nouns or clauses? Something, someone, or some clause is "imposing limits" and "requiring doctors" - what is it? It's the "insurance plans." That's a noun, so we want a noun modifier setup. Those -ing words that introduce modifying phrases or clauses indicate adverbial modifiers, not noun modifiers. Eliminate A. Scan the answer. Eliminate B for repeating the error.
Hi Stacey,
Overall i understood the mistake in option A. But isn't comma + ing modifiers indicate adverbial modifiers.
In original sentence there is no comma before "imposing", can we still consider it as adverbial modifier and treat same way we treat comma + ing modifiers.

SC guide ( pg 84) says if participle modifier comes without comma, it indicate noun modifier.

Noun Modifier:
Present Participle without commas
Before noun - The SLEEPING cat took a nap.
After noun - The cat SLEEPING on the rug is named "Sue."

Verb Modifier:
Present Participle with commas
Before verb: WHISTLING "Beat It", I lifted the weight.
After verb : llifteq the weight, WHISTLING "Beat It."
Regards
Abhishek
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