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OG-12 SC Question 79 ! Help

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OG-12 SC Question 79 ! Help

by ankit0411 » Tue Apr 17, 2012 10:34 am
Defense attorneys have occasionally argued that their
clients' misconduct stemmed from a reaction to
something ingested, but in attributing criminal or
delinquent behavior to some food allergy, the
perpetrators are in effect told that they are not
responsible for their actions.
(A) in attributing criminal or delinquent behavior to
some food allergy,
(B) if criminal or delinquent behavior is attributed toan allergy to some food,
(C) in attributing behavior that is criminal or
delinquent to an allergy to some food,
(D) if some food allergy is attributed as the cause ocriminal or delinquent behavior,
(E) in attributing a food allergy as the cause of
criminal or delinquent behavior,

Can anyone help me with the explanation of this question ? The OA is B
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by Mike@Magoosh » Wed Apr 18, 2012 11:57 am
Hi, there. I'm happy to help with this.

Defense attorneys have occasionally argued that their clients' misconduct stemmed from a reaction to something ingested, but in attributing criminal or delinquent behavior to some food allergy, the perpetrators are in effect told that they are not responsible for their actions.

There's a screaming problem with this prompt. The phrase "in attributing blah blah blah", is a participial phrase, and the very next noun should be the target. The noun that comes next is the modified noun that should be doing the "attributing." The next noun is "the perpetrator", the thugs who actually committed the crime. The perpetrators are not doing the attributing --- it's the lawyers who are doing the attributing, but the lawyers don't appear in the second half of the sentence. Therefore, the participial phrase construction is incorrect. Right away, that means (A) & (C) & (E) are out.

That leaves:
(B) if criminal or delinquent behavior is attributed to an allergy to some food,
(D) if some food allergy is attributed as the cause of criminal or delinquent behavior,

(B) is clear, concise, and grammatically correct.

(D) is a horribly passive indirect wordy construction. Beware of passive constructions (e.g. "is attributed to"), because they are seldom right on GMAT SC. Beware of "the cause of", because there is almost always a more direct way to say that.

Thus, answer = B

Notice that, by isolating the grammatical mistake in the prompt, we were able to eliminate three choices right away. Often, when you can identify the mistake in the prompt, that allows you to winnow through the answer choices quickly.

Here's a free lesson on GMAT SC:
https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/599-int ... correction
I hope you find that helpful.

Does all this make sense? Let me know if you have any further questions.

Mike :-)
Magoosh GMAT Instructor
https://gmat.magoosh.com/
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by Ashishkapoor7 » Wed Apr 18, 2012 2:37 pm
What does prompt mean?

Sincerely
Ashish
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by Mike@Magoosh » Thu Apr 19, 2012 11:31 am
Ashishkapoor7 wrote:What does prompt mean?

Sincerely
Ashish
The "prompt" is the question stem before any of the answer choices. In GMAT SC, the prompt is the full sentence given at the start, with the underlined text ---- of course, the underlined text in the prompt is always identical to choice (A). In GMAT DS, the prompt is the question that precedes Statements #1 & #2.

You may find the video link helpful in my previous post on this page. Here's another lesson video you may find helpful.
https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/602-par ... the-basics
Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Mike :-)
Magoosh GMAT Instructor
https://gmat.magoosh.com/
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