Sentence Correction

Mohit@

In following sentence :

It was raining, and thus I was late for work is correct.

'thus' is making sense because both of the parts, subject is different.
we are using 'thus' to relate these parts.

But
I like playing and dancing. --> absolutely correct.
I play several sports such as badminton, cricket and TT. --> correct.
no need to add 'thus' here.

I like playing and dancing is correct because we are connecting two gerunds and gerunds should be treated as nouns.

I am not too sure about I like playing , AND dancing - I need to check this option.

Here's a question from OG12 that exploits this rule.

Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have reduced sickness, sleeping on the job, fatigue among shift workers, and have raised production efficiency in various
industries.
(a) fatigue among shift workers, and have raised
(B) fatigue among shift workers, and raised
(C) and fatigue among shift workers while raising
(D) lowered fatigue among shift workers, and raised
(E) and fatigue among shift workers was lowered while raising
[spoiler]
OA C[/spoiler]

mohit11 wrote:Here's a question from OG12 that exploits this rule.

Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have reduced sickness, sleeping on the job, fatigue among shift workers, and have raised production efficiency in various
industries.
(a) fatigue among shift workers, and have raised
(B) fatigue among shift workers, and raised
(C) and fatigue among shift workers while raising
(D) lowered fatigue among shift workers, and raised
(E) and fatigue among shift workers was lowered while raising
[spoiler]
OA C[/spoiler]

The correct answer of this question is C not because of , and connector but because of parallelism in play here.

Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have done two things -
1. reduced sickness, sleeping on the job and fatigue among shift workers.
2. raised production efficiency in various

and has to be there before fatigue to complete the list. This is present in C and E. E is wrong because of redundacy of was lowered.

If there was an option like -
and fatigue among shift workers, and have raised - then IMO this would have been valid as well.

paes wrote:niksWorth@

Alpha Behn's plays made her famous.

There is no ambiguity in this sentence. A possessive pronoun can refer to a possessive noun. [ From MgMat]

Now coming to D, I am seeing 2 problems.

(1) It looks that it is changing the meaning of the sentence. More emphasis is given on year of publication in D.
While according the given choice, main emphasis is on : the plays made her first female author. [ year of publication is just an extra information ]

(2) D is a passive construction.

"Plays" did not make Aphra Behn one of the first female authors to earn a living by writing. It was the "publishing of plays" that made Aphra Behn one of the first female authors to earn a living by writing. Present Participle modifier in D, making her one of first female authors to earn a living by writing, modifies the verb were published in the preceding clause to clarify this meaning. Hence, D is better than A.

prpgmat@

According to D also, the meaning is same as A

Aphra Behn,<> were published in the 1670s, making Behn one of the known author.

it says :

Aphra Behn were published in the 1670s, AND made Behn one of the known author.

paes wrote:prpgmat@

According to D also, the meaning is same as A

Aphra Behn,<> were published in the 1670s, making Behn one of the known author.

it says :

Aphra Behn were published in the 1670s, AND made Behn one of the known author.

In A, phrase and published in England in the 1670s is enclosed in commas. The phrase enclosed by commas is not important to the meaning of the sentence, and you can hide this phrase without changing the meaning of the sentence.

Now, try to read the sentence without the phrase enclosed by the commas. It would read:

Plays by Aphra Behn performed by the Duke's Company, and published in England in the 1670s, made her one of the first female authors to earn a living by writing.

The subject of this sentence is Plays and the main verb of this sentence is made. But "Plays" did not "make" anyone anything. It was the "publishing of plays" that made Aphra Behn the first female author to earn a living by writing. This meaning is clear in choice D, as I tried to explain above.

Try to ask yourself, what is the Subject and Main Verb of the sentence. You have not broken-up the sentence correctly.

From your post above:

Aphra Behn were published in the 1670s, AND made Behn one of the known author.

Aphra Behn is a person. She cannot be published.

@prepgmat09

Why can't plays make someone famous?

Do we say -
1) Faulkner's books made him famous.
or,
2) The publishing of Faulkner's books made him famous.

Likewise,
1) Tarantino's offbeat movies have made him a huge star.
or,
2) The releasing of Tarantino's offbeat movies have made him a huge star.

gmat09,

your post makes sense.

A similar meaning is reflected in following OG problem :

Five fledgling sea eagles left their nests in western Scotland this summer, bringing to 34 the number of wild birds successfully raised since transplants from Norway began in 1975.

Thanks for your explanation.

I have invited David-Veritas to put more light on it.
Lets wait for the reply guys.

niksworth wrote:@prepgmat09

Why can't plays make someone famous?

Do we say -
1) Faulkner's books made him famous.
or,
2) The publishing of Faulkner's books made him famous.

Likewise,
1) Tarantino's offbeat movies have made him a huge star.
or,
2) The releasing of Tarantino's offbeat movies have made him a huge star.

I agree. Now, I am not able to find any problem with A.

PS: As a side note, I think you examples above "Tarantino's offbeat movies have made him a huge star" contains a pronoun error. "him" does not have an antecedent in this sentence.

prepgmat09 wrote: I agree. Now, I am not able to find any problem with A.

PS: As a side note, I think you examples above "Tarantino's offbeat movies have made him a huge star" contains a pronoun error. "him" does not have an antecedent in this sentence.

Actually both examples are structurally the same.
Possessive noun + verb + possessive pronoun + object complement.
1)Faulkner's books + made + him + famous.
2) Tarantino's offbeat movies + have made + him + a huge star.

Only difference between 1 and 2 is an additional modifier before the noun in 2.

Anyways, let us wait for the expert reply.

It just struck me that Plays by Alpha Behn might not be a form of possessive at all. by Alpha Behn is a prepositional phrase with Alpha Behn the object of the preposition.

The difference is between prepositions of and by. Of denotes possession. Does by denote possession?

In that case the rule referred to by Paes A possessive pronoun can refer to a possessive noun. will not be applicable because there is no possessive noun..

Then her in A will clearly not have a referent, so A will be wrong. and D the best choice available.

niksworth@

two things

1. Pronoun ambiguity is not a must rule to avoid a SC.

2. In this sentence, her can refer only to 'Aphra Behn'. It can not refer to anything else in this sentence.
So no point of ambiguity.

I would never choose the ",and" to separate two verbs. Someone was trying hard to make this sentence sufficiently incorrect and one device they used was to separate two verbs "performed" and "published" with ", and." I will defer to the style manuals that have been cited as to whether this is ever permissible, but the following would not be correct on the GMAT - "Bob ran, and jumped." In this case (choice A), the comma is without a doubt intentionally designed to make this choice wrong.

Additionally, I would say that in answer choice A, "performed by the Duke's Company" is meant to be a modifier, yet there the form is not correct. You would need a comma or some other device to indicate the modifier, as in D, which says "Plays by Aphra Behn, performed by the Duke's Company, were published..."

This makes a proper modifier. Whereas A without the prepositions is "Plays by Aphra Behn performed by the Duke's Company, and published in England in the 1670s, made her one of the first female authors to earn a living by writing. So only the bold portions, "plays performed, and published made her"

As to the reasons that Paes does not like Choice D:

1) Paes, I have once again looked through the official material and there is nothing about avoiding changes to answer choice A. Do not say "the original sentence." There is no original sentence in terms of the underlined portion. There are only five equal choices.

Please see this example from the 1st edition verbal review page 240.

"Using a Doppler ultrasound device, fetal heartbeats can be detected by the twelfth week of pregnancy."

The correct answer changes the meaning completely by adding a physician.

"Using a Doppler ultrasound device, a physician can detect fetal heartbeats by the twelfth week of pregnancy."


2) Passive versus active should not come before grammar and clarity. Passive versus active properly comes after grammar, and the choice that sounds better in context. Choice D is certainly clearer and sounds better so active/ passive does not come into play. This is only a tiebreaker if all else is equal.

I hope this helps...