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New issue 1000 # 73

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by reply2spg » Tue Oct 12, 2010 2:57 pm
Alaska regularly deposits some of its profits from the sale of oil into a special fund, with the intention to sustain the state's economy after the exhaustion of its oil reserves.

(A) fund, with the intention to sustain the state's economy after the exhaustion of its oil reserves
(B) fund, the intention of which is to sustain the state's economy after they have exhausted their oil reserves
(C) fund intended to sustain the state's economy after oil reserves are exhausted
(D) fund intended to sustain the state's economy after exhausting its oil reserves
(E) fund that they intend to sustain the state's economy after oil reserves are exhausted

Why D is wrong here? I got the correct answer, but want to know why D is wrong?

As per the posts on other forums people say 'its' is ambiguous, because economy or fund can not have oil reserves. So logically 'its' is referring to Alaska. When I did the analysis I thought that

oil reserves are exhausted - Is correct and tense is maintained
exhausting its oil reserves - Is not correct and tense is not maintained

Please let me know if I am correct

Btw OA is C
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by this_time_i_will » Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:12 pm
i think there is a subtle meaning difference in both the sentences:

C: oil reserves are exhausted - This means that the oil reserve will exhaust after its prolong usage.
D: exhausting its oil reserves - This means that the state delibrately wants to exhaust its oil reserves.
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by kaushiksin » Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:52 am
The answer should be (D).
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by niksworth » Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:48 am
this_time_i_will is spot on in his/her analysis. It is indeed the subtle change in meaning which makes D incorrect.
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by GMATMadeEasy » Wed Oct 13, 2010 12:49 pm
A> with the intention to sustain the state's economy after the exhaustion of its oil reserves.

Why A is wrong ? this is a prepositional phrase working as an adverbial modifier in my opinion.
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by pesfunk » Wed Oct 13, 2010 8:52 pm
in option D, the word "its" refers to oil reserves of State's economy....oil reserve is of a state not it's economy.
Hence D is ruled out.

IMO C.
reply2spg wrote:Alaska regularly deposits some of its profits from the sale of oil into a special fund, with the intention to sustain the state's economy after the exhaustion of its oil reserves.

(A) fund, with the intention to sustain the state's economy after the exhaustion of its oil reserves
(B) fund, the intention of which is to sustain the state's economy after they have exhausted their oil reserves
(C) fund intended to sustain the state's economy after oil reserves are exhausted
(D) fund intended to sustain the state's economy after exhausting its oil reserves
(E) fund that they intend to sustain the state's economy after oil reserves are exhausted

Why D is wrong here? I got the correct answer, but want to know why D is wrong?

As per the posts on other forums people say 'its' is ambiguous, because economy or fund can not have oil reserves. So logically 'its' is referring to Alaska. When I did the analysis I thought that

oil reserves are exhausted - Is correct and tense is maintained
exhausting its oil reserves - Is not correct and tense is not maintained

Please let me know if I am correct

Btw OA is C
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by majorsheetal » Wed Oct 13, 2010 8:59 pm
the verb form is always preferred over gerund form of noun . so instead of exhausting oil reserves are EXHAUSTED is the correct form.
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by GMATMadeEasy » Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:40 am
Could someone explain why A s wrong ?
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by niksworth » Tue Oct 19, 2010 8:56 am
GMATMadeEasy wrote:Could someone explain why A s wrong ?
intention to is wrong idiomatically.

It is either intended to or intention of.
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by gmat_perfect » Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:06 am
reply2spg wrote:Alaska regularly deposits some of its profits from the sale of oil into a special fund, with the intention to sustain the state's economy after the exhaustion of its oil reserves.

(A) fund, with the intention to sustain the state's economy after the exhaustion of its oil reserves
(B) fund, the intention of which is to sustain the state's economy after they have exhausted their oil reserves
(C) fund intended to sustain the state's economy after oil reserves are exhausted
(D) fund intended to sustain the state's economy after exhausting its oil reserves
(E) fund that they intend to sustain the state's economy after oil reserves are exhausted

Why D is wrong here? I got the correct answer, but want to know why D is wrong?

As per the posts on other forums people say 'its' is ambiguous, because economy or fund can not have oil reserves. So logically 'its' is referring to Alaska. When I did the analysis I thought that

oil reserves are exhausted - Is correct and tense is maintained
exhausting its oil reserves - Is not correct and tense is not maintained

Please let me know if I am correct

Btw OA is C
Let me explain the issues:

See the following sentence:

I have written a book after analyzing lot of materials.

--> Look "after analyzing" retains the subject.

We have created a fund intended to help the poor after collecting subscription from our friends.

--> Who have done the work of collection? ---> We?

So, the After Verbing retains the subject, specially in this context.

==> This is why D is wrong. D means that Alaska is exhausting the oil reserve. The intended meaning of the sentence is that oil reserve will be exhausted.

COMMA + With

COMMA + With modifies the verb of the clause immediately before comma.

Now, look at the option A.

Alaska deposits profits......, with the intention to sustain the the economy.

--> It wrongly means that the deposit is made to sustain the economy. Nope, the main purpose of the deposit is to create a fund that is intended to sustain the economy.

B and E have pronoun errors.

Answer is C.
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by vishalj » Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:39 am
Interesting discussion and I can't wait to dive in. Here we are really talking about A, C and D.

A> Someone point out correctly that "with the intention.." is the prepositional phrase. Note that the prepositional phrase can modify as adjective or adverb. The tricky thing is to identify whether it is adjective or adverb. One method that I use is to ask how, when or why to see if the prepositional phrase is adverb. If I don't get any answer, I assume it to be adjective.

For example : After sunset, Josphine went to church. ( Question : When Josphine went to chuch? Ans - After sunset. So the prepositional phrase "after sunset" is an adverb.)

In this case, when you frame question with "how","when", or "why", you don't get the prepositional phrase as an answer. So we know that the prepositional phrase here acts as adjective. Since the nearest noun is "special fund", this prepostional phrase is modifying "special fund" which is of course incorrect. So A is out.

D> The construction in D is "fund intended to sustain the state's economy after exhausting its oil reserves , or fund + participle phrase after (fund+) participle phrase. " fund intended to sustain the state's economy" makes sense. "fund exhausting its oil reserve" doesn't make sence. So D is out.
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by gmat_perfect » Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:11 am
vishalj wrote: D> The construction in D is "fund intended to sustain the state's economy after exhausting its oil reserves , or fund + participle phrase after (fund+) participle phrase. " fund intended to sustain the state's economy" makes sense. "fund exhausting its oil reserve" doesn't make sence. So D is out.
One mistake

In the sentence "Alaska regularly deposits some of its profits from the sale of oil into a special fund intended to sustain the state's economy after exhausting its oil reserves."

You have wrongly assumed that "intended" is acting as verb.

Nope, it is not.

Here, "intended' is a past participle that modifies the NOUN "fund".

Similar example:

The building built in 1971 has been destroyed.

--> here, "built" is not working as verb, rather it is working as an adjective.

So, it is illogical to say that "fund" is the subject of the verb "exhausting".

Hope, it clears.
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by vishalj » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:14 am
GMAT_Perfect - I am not sure if I understand your question. "intended" and "exhausting" are both participle, and hence construct participial phrase. And by definition, participial phrase acts as an adjective and modifies noun "fund". This is what I mentioned. Did I miss something or understand incorrectly? let me know.
gmat_perfect wrote:
vishalj wrote: D> The construction in D is "fund intended to sustain the state's economy after exhausting its oil reserves , or fund + participle phrase after (fund+) participle phrase. " fund intended to sustain the state's economy" makes sense. "fund exhausting its oil reserve" doesn't make sence. So D is out.
One mistake

In the sentence "Alaska regularly deposits some of its profits from the sale of oil into a special fund intended to sustain the state's economy after exhausting its oil reserves."

You have wrongly assumed that "intended" is acting as verb.

Nope, it is not.

Here, "intended' is a past participle that modifies the NOUN "fund".

Similar example:

The building built in 1971 has been destroyed.

--> here, "built" is not working as verb, rather it is working as an adjective.

So, it is illogical to say that "fund" is the subject of the verb "exhausting".

Hope, it clears.
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