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Speed limit - long one!
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astrochris
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Aha! I knew it was E 
The sentence felt way too confusing with the subject in the back. My night of studying is starting well.
The sentence felt way too confusing with the subject in the back. My night of studying is starting well.-
rahul_gaur
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Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
(A) Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
(B) Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
(C) Regarded by opponents as ineffective meddling and by supporters as the conservation of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
(D) The fight over the speed limit, regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
(E) The fight over the speed limit, a measure regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
I tried to solve this question by eliminating the answer options. The usual method....
B and C are ruled out because "speed limit" as such cannot be ineffective or meddlesome.
Again D is ruled out because the fight over Speed limit cannot be conserver of energy:P
A is ruled out on the basis of ambiguity,
So according to me E is the right answer. Please clarify
(A) Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
(B) Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
(C) Regarded by opponents as ineffective meddling and by supporters as the conservation of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
(D) The fight over the speed limit, regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
(E) The fight over the speed limit, a measure regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
I tried to solve this question by eliminating the answer options. The usual method....
B and C are ruled out because "speed limit" as such cannot be ineffective or meddlesome.
Again D is ruled out because the fight over Speed limit cannot be conserver of energy:P
A is ruled out on the basis of ambiguity,
So according to me E is the right answer. Please clarify
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leandrogcl
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From the modifying clause, .... regarded as ineffective..... conserver of life.. it is clear that Speed limit is described here.
so A,D & E are out because of wrong subject " The fight over the speed limit" instead of the speed limit.
and C is out because of parallelism issue
So "B" is the best option here ...
so A,D & E are out because of wrong subject " The fight over the speed limit" instead of the speed limit.
and C is out because of parallelism issue
So "B" is the best option here ...
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shrikantpatel
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GMATGuruNY
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I received a PM asking me to comment.DanaJ wrote:Source: Beat The GMAT Practice Questions
Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
A. Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
B. Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
C. Regarded by opponents as ineffective meddling and by supporters as the conservation of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
D. The fight over the speed limit, regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
E. The fight over the speed limit, a measure regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
OA after some replies!
In A, regarded is incorrectly modifying the fight. The intended meaning of the sentence is that the speed limit is regarded as ineffective. Eliminate A.
In C, the speed limit cannot be regarded as the conservation. The intended meaning of the sentence is that the speed limit is a conserver of life. Eliminate C.
In D, it is unclear whether regarded is modifying the fight or the speed limit. Eliminate D.
In B, the preposition over is not followed by a clear object. Over what exactly? Eliminate B.
The correct answer is E.
Why E is better than D:
In D, regarded is an adjective that could refer either to the speed limit or to the fight, but in E, a measure clearly refers to the speed limit. No reader would ever construe that a measure refers to the fight.
Why E is better than B:
A preposition generally should be followed by an object:
Awkward: the movie that everyone is talking about. (No object follows the preposition about.)
Better: the movie about which everyone is talking. (Which is the object of the preposition about.)
I would be skeptical of an answer choice that offers a preposition not followed by a clear object -- especially when another answer choice avoids this issue and is free of errors. In B, over is not followed by an object; in E, over is directly followed by its object, the speed limit.
Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Sat Sep 10, 2011 3:20 am, edited 2 times in total.
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ladyliberty
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Measure is an appositive. Two nouns are in apposition when they are side by side, with one serving to explain or define the other:ruplun wrote:Could anyone explain , what is the noun here and how "measure" in option E is able to justify the modifier?
Chocolate, my favorite flavor of ice cream, tastes especially good on a hot summer day.
In the sentence above, flavor is in apposition to chocolate.
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mundasingh123
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Hi Dana,i come across the modifier ",Past Participle " used several times in this manner.DanaJ wrote:So the OA here is E!
@uwhusky: just stumbled upon it in the Beat The GMAT Practice Questions... While I don't have a specific set of questions with modifiers, I have seen quite a few in this resource, especially one really tough one with Italians and Slavs... If I find it again, I'll post it!
Anyway, here's my take on this question:
So the way it's structured right now, the modifier is incorrectly placed (as many of you have noticed). It's not the "fight over the speed limit" that's meddlesome or a conserver of life and energy, it's the speed limit itself. We need to find the answer choice that correctly attaches the modifier ("Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy") to its correct noun ("speed limit"). This way, we can eliminate A for sure. D is also wrong because of the same reason: incorrectly placed modifier.
C is wrong because there's no parallelism between "ineffective meddling" (verb) and "the conservation of life and energy" (noun). Also, the use of "the" in bold is unnecessary. "The" suggests that the speed limit is "the one and only" (to quote a song) saver of energy and life, which is obviously not the case - I can think of a million other things that can save more lives and energy
Now, you guys have successfully narrowed it down to B and E... E is better here because of the use of the passive voice in B. In general, you should avoid the passive voice in the GMAT, because it's considered wordy. "To be fought over" is also pretty vague - who fights over it? The official explanation also cites "a pile-up of prepositions" in "to be fought over in".
Could you explain , only if you are completely sure about the rule , what exactly does "regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy " modify ?
Does it modify the fight or does it modify speed limit ?
D. The fight over the speed limit, regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
I Seek Explanations Not Answers
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GMATGuruNY
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Measure is an appositive. Two nouns are in apposition when they are side by side, with one serving to explain or define the other:ruplun wrote:Could anyone explain , what is the noun here and how "measure" in option E is able to justify the modifier?
Chocolate, my favorite flavor of ice cream, tastes especially good on a hot summer day.
In the sentence above, flavor is in apposition to chocolate.
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I have worked with students based in the US, Australia, Taiwan, China, Tajikistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia -- a long list of countries.
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As a tutor, I don't simply teach you how I would approach problems.
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