Sulfur dioxide, a major contributor

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Sulfur dioxide, a major contributor

by heymayank08 » Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:17 am
Sulfur dioxide, a major contributor to acid rain, is an especially serious pollutant because it diminishes the respiratory system's ability to deal with all other pollutants.
(A) an especially serious pollutant because it diminishes the respiratory system's ability to deal
(B) an especially serious pollutant because of diminishing the respiratory system's capability of dealing
(C) an especially serious pollutant because it diminishes the capability of the respiratory system in dealing
(D) a specially serious pollutant because it diminishes the capability of the respiratory system to deal
(E) a specially serious pollutant because of diminishing the respiratory system's ability to deal


OA A

pls explain!! :)

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by destroyerofgmat » Wed Mar 28, 2012 11:00 am
Be sure to proof your question, you are missing some words. I'm assuming that A, B, and C include "is" if B or C do not that's ok there are other splits that rule them out.
Here's the way I went through this.

- I didn't see any glaring mistakes in the original (not that I'm fabulous enough at SC to notice all mistakes all the time) so I moved to the answers and used them as a guide.

- I split the choices and noticed D and E (assuming you copy and pasted correctly) begin with "a specially...." This is a run-on...needs a verb. "Sulfur D is a serious..." This would be the construction. These choices appear to be introducing another modifier but they do not. Elim D&E

- Among A, B, and C "because of" VS "because it" we're talking about Sulfur D here so we would say "Sulfur D is bad because it does x..." not "Sulfur D is bad because of doing something..." elim B

- A VS C - Idiom for capable is "X is capable of Y" Choice C seems akward. Choice A the Idiom for ability is "X's ability to Y" This seems more clear. Try cutting off all that crap before and replace "it" with Sulfur D. "Sulfur D diminishes the respiratory system's ability to deal..." vs "Sulfur D diminishing the respriratory system's capability of dealing..." Ugh...Does that make sense to you?? Elim C

Hope that helps.

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by heymayank08 » Thu Mar 29, 2012 7:49 am
yeah u r correct "is" is not in the underlines portion of the original question.

but if this is so..then how did u elimate D

moreover D and A sounds the same to me.

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by bubbliiiiiiii » Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:17 am
One reason for choosing A over D is because of wordiness.

system's capability is better that capability of system.

Another reason is especially v/s special. I think adverb is needed instead of an adjective. Will be happy if someone can expand on this. :)
Regards,

Pranay

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by heymayank08 » Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:35 am
If you look carefully then you'll see that
option A as well as D consists of specially and especially so both are adverbs.

and about wrdiness a contains the appostrophie "'s" which is actually we can say less preferred.

can you give any other reason to eliminate D.

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by chris@magoosh » Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:44 pm
Hi guys, let's see if I can clear up any confusion between (A) and (D) :).

Note the word 'especially' in (A). 'Especially', as used in the sentence, means to a great extent/particularly.

Now, notice the word 'specially' in (D). 'Specially', in written English, cannot mean to a great extent. Let's compare:

Correct: He was especially adept at standardized tests, usually scoring in the top 10%.

Incorrect: He was specially adept at standardized tests, usually scoring in the top 10%.

Therefore (D) is out and (A) is the answer.

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by bubbliiiiiiii » Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:59 pm
Hi Chris,

Thanks for your inputs.

I have looked into dictionary and found both words to have same meaning!

Can you site few examples that sheds more light on usage of the words?
Regards,

Pranay