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Who/Whom - Please Help

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Who/Whom - Please Help

by harish » Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:07 am
The board of trustees was pleased to announce that among the speakers chosen for this year’s seminars there are a number of artists, including one that is an industrial designer.

A) among the speakers chosen for this year’s seminars there are a number of artists, including one that is an industrial designer

B) the speakers at this year’s seminars include a number of artists, one of whom is an industrial designer.

C) the speakers at this year’s seminars include a number of artists, and one who is an industrial designer.

D)among the speakers at this year’s seminars there are a number of artists, one who is an industrial designer.

E) Among the speakers at this year’s seminars are a number of artists, including one which is an industrial designer.

I chose option (C) The correct Answer is (B) Could someone please explain. What is wrong with Option (C)
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by sibbineni » Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:53 am
WHO usage:

when the free running sentence contains he,she or they-use WHO

WHOM usage:

when free running sentence contains him,her,or them- use WHOM
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by harish » Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:52 am
Hi sibbineni,

But how could use that to answer the above question.Could you please explain. :?:

Thanks
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by jbhathal » Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:52 am
I have found Answer (B) using the basic SC principles:

1. Look for clear sentence options
2. Remove all options that change the meaning of the original sentence
2. Keep in mind the rules for Brevity and Redundancy

option A: Redundancy (speakers chosen at this year's seminars ......) . Instead (speakers at this year's seminars) in option B is preferred.
option B: By far the most clear and to the point answer choice
option C: vague (and one who is......)
option D: Incomplete (one who is an.... becomes another running incomplete sentence)
option E: this is a correct version of option D (correct use of among...including in this sentence), but still vague compared to option B.

Hope it helps,
Good Luck
-JagmoN
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by loki.gmat » Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:27 pm
doesnt B change the intended meaning of the sentence.

B says that "the speakers .................include a number of artists" whereas its the board of trustees that have included a number of artists as speakers.


Thanks!
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by sharkss » Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:55 pm
The correct answer is B because "whom" is the right word usage in this sentence....

The SUBJECT of this sentence (sort of): speakers
The OBJECT of the sentence (sort of): artists

When we are trying to modify the artist (object)...we use WHOM - Like in this sentence, we are trying to state that one of the artists is an industrial designer.

I feel the reason why answer C is incorrect is because an industrial designer IS an artist...and the original sentence was wrong to place 'industrial designer' out of the union of 'artists'.
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by SaurabhChobe » Mon Jul 07, 2008 1:42 pm
I always use this simple guideline -> if we can replace it by him/her/them then its a "whom" else its "who".

In this case we can replace it by them ( one of them is an engineer ). Hence the answer is "whom"
Finally decided to take the GMAT
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Whom is an object pronoun.

by gmatutor » Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:23 pm
Always use whom when the noun that whom refers back to if preceded by a preposition (of). Since artists is preceded by of, the appropriate pronoun is whom.
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by Arabian Baba » Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:42 pm
Harish...I was also stumped by this question when it appeared as the 2nd question in one of my Princeton tests.
Its difficult to understand as to how can an INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER be an ARTIST, because the sentence doesn't say, 'one of whom is also an industrial designer'.
Lets suppose it was a BANKER instead of an INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER....would the sentence still have been 'artists, one of whom is a banker' ?
It would rather be either 'artists, and one who is a BANKER' or 'artists, one of whom is also a BANKER'.
Although 'one of whom' is PERFECTLY IDIOMATIC we cannot apply it anywhere and everwhere we like. This is indeed a debatable question with regards to its real world meaning.
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Thanks

by harish » Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:02 pm
Thanks guys!!
Now i get it.
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by kirube » Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:08 am
hey harish,

Here's another simple rule

Whom:
It is always followed by a 'VERB'

Who:
It is always followed by a 'Noun' or 'Pronoun'
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by mmslf75 » Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:49 am
Can someone be more clearer in explaining this one...!!
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by brick2009 » Sun Nov 29, 2009 6:52 am
a simple test for using who vs whom:

replace: who with --> he/she/they

whom --> him/her/them

In B: One of them.. is correct usage.
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