The Quechuans

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The Quechuans

by heymayank08 » Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:05 am
The Quechuans believed that all things participated in both the material level and the mystical level of reality, and many individual Quechuans claimed to have contact with it directly with an ichana (dream) experience.
(A) contact with it directly with
(B) direct contact with it by way of
(C) contact with the latter directly through
(D) direct contact with the latter by means of
(E) contact directly with the mystical level due to


[spoiler]OA: D but whats the difference b/w D and C pls explain[/spoiler]
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by GmatKiss » Mon Apr 16, 2012 11:12 am
heymayank08 wrote:The Quechuans believed that all things participated in both the material level and the mystical level of reality, and many individual Quechuans claimed to have contact with it directly with an ichana (dream) experience.
(A) contact with it directly with
(B) direct contact with it by way of
(C) contact with the latter directly through
(D) direct contact with the latter by means of
(E) contact directly with the mystical level due to


[spoiler]OA: D but whats the difference b/w D and C pls explain[/spoiler]

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by heymayank08 » Tue Apr 17, 2012 4:58 am
please elaborate
why did u eliminate the "through"
and pickd the "by means of"

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by karthikpandian19 » Sun May 13, 2012 1:46 am
Can any GMAT expert provide the reasoning for each option in this sentence???

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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Sun May 13, 2012 7:13 am
"It" is ambiguous in A and B.

E uses "due to " incorrectly.

"Direct" is describing "contact", so it should be an adjective, not an adverb (as "directly" is). This leaves us with D.
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by heymayank08 » Mon May 14, 2012 8:45 am
Bill@VeritasPrep wrote:"It" is ambiguous in A and B.

E uses "due to " incorrectly.

"Direct" is describing "contact", so it should be an adjective, not an adverb (as "directly" is). This leaves us with D.
bill how do we come to know in this sentence that "direct" is describing "contact"....
i mean as in option c if direct is describing some other thing then also same meaning is communicated..
and how do we came to know what is the actual intended meaning in this..
plz help

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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Mon May 14, 2012 8:59 am
The issue is that C can be interpreted in two ways:

(C) contact with the latter directly through (an ichana (dream) experience)

or

(C) contact with the latter directly through (an ichana (dream) experience)

Which one do we want? As another example of an adverb being ambiguous:

Use the back door only after the store is closed.
(The back door should only be used after the store is closed; if the store is open, don't use the back door)

or

Use the back door only after the store is closed.
(The back door is the only one that can be used if the store is not open. This does not mean you can't use it when the store is open.)


If we move it to the beginning, the meaning becomes clear:

Only use the back door after the store is closed.
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by heymayank08 » Mon May 14, 2012 9:13 am
thanks bill for such a prompt and wonderful explanation...
things are clearer now :)

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