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airplane flights

by Ankitaverma » Wed Dec 04, 2013 9:52 am
The recent surge in the number of airplane flights has clogged the nation's air-traffic control system, to lead to 55 percent more delays at airports, and prompts fears among some officials that safety is being compromised.
(A) to lead to 55 percent more delays at airports, and prompts
(B) leading to 55 percent more delay at airports and prompting
(C) to lead to a 55 percent increase in delay at airports and prompt
(D) to lead to an increase of 55 percent in delays at airports, and prompted
(E) leading to a 55-percent increase in delays at airports and prompting

Q/A-E why not B
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by Mike@Magoosh » Wed Dec 04, 2013 12:41 pm
Ankitaverma wrote:The recent surge in the number of airplane flights has clogged the nation's air-traffic control system, to lead to 55 percent more delays at airports, and prompts fears among some officials that safety is being compromised.
(A) to lead to 55 percent more delays at airports, and prompts
(B) leading to 55 percent more delay at airports and prompting
(C) to lead to a 55 percent increase in delay at airports and prompt
(D) to lead to an increase of 55 percent in delays at airports, and prompted
(E) leading to a 55-percent increase in delays at airports and prompting

Q/A-E why not B
Dear Ankitaverma,
I'm happy to help. :-)

As you know, we need the participle "leading", which narrows choices down to (B) & (E).

The wording "55 percent more delay" is grammatically incorrect, because the word "delay" would have to be plural. Even if we correct that, "55 percent more delays" still sounds awkward. The 55% indicates an increase in number, in how many delays, and for numbers, we use "greater" more frequently than "more". We wouldn't say "a more number of delays" --- we would say "a greater number of delays."

That's why (B) is wrong. Choice (E) takes a perfectly correct approach, and it is the best answer.

This is not a very GMAT-like question, and not particularly high quality.

Mike :-)
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Dec 04, 2013 3:52 pm
Ankitaverma wrote:The recent surge in the number of airplane flights has clogged the nation's air-traffic control system, to lead to 55 percent more delays at airports, and prompts fears among some officials that safety is being compromised.
(A) to lead to 55 percent more delays at airports, and prompts
(B) leading to 55 percent more delay at airports and prompting
(C) to lead to a 55 percent increase in delay at airports and prompt
(D) to lead to an increase of 55 percent in delays at airports, and prompted
(E) leading to a 55-percent increase in delays at airports and prompting

Q/A-E why not B
The SC above is legit: it's SC94 in the OG12.

A conjunction such as and must connect PARALLEL FORMS.
A: to lead AND prompts --> not parallel
D: to lead AND prompted --> not parallel
Eliminate A and C.

An infinitive modifier typically serves to express PURPOSE.
John drove to the store TO BUY MILK.
WHY did John drive to the store?
TO BUY MILK.
In C, to lead and [to] prompt imply that the PURPOSE of the surge is TO LEAD to delays and TO PROMPT fears.
Not the intended meaning.
The delays and the fears are the RESULT of the surge, not the purpose.
Eliminate C.

In B, the meaning conveyed by 55% more delay is unclear.
Are more PLANES being delayed?
Is every plane being delayed for LONGER?
Eliminate B.

The correct answer is E.
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by deepakk » Sun Dec 08, 2013 11:49 am
I have approached this question as:
1)X and Y parallelism
To lead and to prompt should be there to make the sentence parallel.
or
Leading and Prompting

So I eliminated option A,Option C, Option D

I am now remaining with Option B and Option E.

55 percent more delay is awkward.

So I went for Option E.

Also Leading should be there instead of To lead but I don't know the correct explanation.

So please explain why Leading and not To Lead.

Please let me know if my approach is correct.

Thanks in Advance.:)
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by Mike@Magoosh » Sun Dec 08, 2013 7:00 pm
deepakk wrote:Also Leading should be there instead of To lead but I don't know the correct explanation.
So please explain why Leading and not To Lead.
Please let me know if my approach is correct.
Thanks in Advance.:)
Dear deepakk,
I'm happy to respond.
Using the infinitive ("to lead") implies the purpose of the action, as if the reason why the surge of airline flight clogged the system is because they were trying to lead to more delays! That doesn't make sense.
When we want to show the consequence of another action, an infinitive is the wrong choice, and a participle is a much better choice.
Does this make sense?
Mike :-)
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