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Subject verb position vs. Active / passive voice

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by smodak » Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:04 pm
It is well known in the supermarket industry that how items are placed on shelves and the frequency of inventory turnovers can be crucial to profits.


(A) the frequency of inventory turnovers can be
(B) the frequency of inventory turnovers is often
(C) the frequency with which the inventory turns over is often
(D) how frequently is the inventory turned over are often
(E) how frequently the inventory turns over can be

OA: E

Could somebody explain why is E a better choice than D? D has 'is' before inventory. E is in passive voice (while the first clause is in active voice). How is E better in terms of parallelism than D?

Now look at the following question

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.
(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers

Here the OA is E and D is eliminated just because it uses passive voice. I just don't get it. The second part does not use infinitive in the main clause. So. why is E a better choice than D?
Last edited by smodak on Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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by kzos » Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:24 pm
smodak wrote:It is well known in the supermarket industry that how items are placed on shelves and the frequency of inventory turnovers can be crucial to profits.


(A) the frequency of inventory turnovers can be
(B) the frequency of inventory turnovers is often
(C) the frequency with which the inventory turns over is often
(D) how frequently is the inventory turned over are often
(E) how frequently the inventory turns over can be

Could somebody explain why is E a better choice than D? D has 'is' before inventory. E is in passive voice (while the first clause is in active voice). How is E better in terms of parallelism than D?

OA:E
you can eliminate answer D:
1. redundancy -> frequently ... often
2. auxilary verb "is" in the wrong place, which makes the sentence interrogative. This better - how frequently the inventory is turned over .....
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by kzos » Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:01 pm
smodak wrote:Now look at the following question

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.
(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers

Here the OA is E and D is eliminated just because it uses passive voice. I just don't get it. The second part does not use infinitive in the main clause. So. why is E a better choice than D?
I believe D is wrong because of:
1. there is no parallel structure. it needs - partly to acquire ..... and partly ...... to provide ....
2. "should" - always red light to me. according to MHGMAT strategy - Never use Should in place of a Command Subjunctive.
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by smodak » Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:40 pm
kzos wrote:
smodak wrote:Now look at the following question

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding, in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.
(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers

Here the OA is E and D is eliminated just because it uses passive voice. I just don't get it. The second part does not use infinitive in the main clause. So. why is E a better choice than D?
I believe D is wrong because of:
1. there is no parallel structure. it needs - partly to acquire ..... and partly ...... to provide ....
2. "should" - always red light to me. according to MHGMAT strategy - Never use Should in place of a Command Subjunctive.
I do not believe the sentence here has a command subjunctive.
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by e-GMAT » Fri Jul 29, 2011 11:26 am
This is one of the rare official questions in which the more apparently parallel choice (Choice D) is not the correct one because it does not communicate the intended meaning of the sentence.

Pasting the question again

In recent years cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding，in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics and partly because crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.
(A) in part that their steers should acquire certain characteristics
(B) in part for the acquisition of certain characteristics in their steers
(C) partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics
(D) partly because certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers
(E) partly to acquire certain characteristics in their steers

Lets begin by understanding what this sentence means:

It states that lately cattle breeders have increasingly used crossbreeding. Then it states the two reasons for this increased usage of crossbreeding:
1: The cattle breeders want their steers to acquire certain characteristics
2: Crossbreeding is said to provide hybrid vigor.
Now element 1 of this list of reasons is in the underlined portion of the sentence.
Now lets analyze the errors:

Choice A: Clearly use of "in part" in element 1 disrupts the parallelism of the list. Since "partly" is used in element 2, element 1 should also begin with "partly"

Choice B: same error as in Choice A.

Choice C: Use of "because of" changes the intended meaning of the sentence. The sentence now reads:
"abc have used crossbreeding, partly because of their steers acquiring certain characteristics."
This implies that Cattle breeders have used crossbreeding because steers have already acquiried certain characteristics. This reverses the intended reason...(cattle breeders have used crossbreeding so that their cattle can acquire certain characteristics)

Choice D: Does not effectively communicate the sense of "purpose". whenever the intended meaning requires us to communicate intent or purpose, the most effective way to do so is by using "to verb". Moreover, in this choice, the use of passive voice "certain characteristics should be acquired by their steers" makes the sentence wordy.

Choice E: Correct. It communicates the purpose of crossbreeding...

As I stated in the beginning of my post, this is one of the few official questions, in which the correct choice does not appear to be as parallel as one of the incorrect choices does.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Payal
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by e-GMAT » Fri Jul 29, 2011 11:28 am
smodak wrote:It is well known in the supermarket industry that how items are placed on shelves and the frequency of inventory turnovers can be crucial to profits.


(A) the frequency of inventory turnovers can be
(B) the frequency of inventory turnovers is often
(C) the frequency with which the inventory turns over is often
(D) how frequently is the inventory turned over are often
(E) how frequently the inventory turns over can be

OA: E

Could somebody explain why is E a better choice than D? D has 'is' before inventory. E is in passive voice (while the first clause is in active voice). How is E better in terms of parallelism than D?
First of all, did you mean that first clause is in passive voice - are placed. And second clause in E is in active voice - turns over.

E is better than D because it preserves the MEANING of choice A, which states a possibility by using the verb - can be...Choice E preserves this meaning. Choice D on the other hand changes this meaning and states a certainty that these two factors ARE OFTEN CRUCIAL TO PROFITS.
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