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Border Skirmish

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Border Skirmish

by sumitkhurana » Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:17 am
Some State Dept officials hope to end border skirmish by bargaining with the new dictator, others by proposing imposing stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others by demanding that NATO launch a full scale operation.
A. by proposing imposing stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others by demanding
B. by proposing the imposition of stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others demand
C. propose imposing stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others are demanding
D. are proposing the stiff imposition of economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others are demanding
E. propose the stiff imposition of economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still other demand
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Re: Border Skirmish

by parallel_chase » Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:31 pm
sumitkhurana wrote:Some State Dept officials hope to end border skirmish by bargaining with the new dictator, others by proposing imposing stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others by demanding that NATO launch a full scale operation.
A. by proposing imposing stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others by demanding
B. by proposing the imposition of stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others demand
C. propose imposing stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others are demanding
D. are proposing the stiff imposition of economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others are demanding
E. propose the stiff imposition of economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still other demand
IMO A

some...by bargaining, other by proposing and still other by demanding.

parallel

Options B, C & D are eliminated because of the parallelism issues

Option E -

hope-propose-demand = faulty parallelism ~ changes the meaning

everybody is hoping to end border skirmish

some by bargaining , others by proposing and still others by demanding


OA?
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by niraj_a » Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:40 pm
E for me

hope, propose, demand
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by iamcste » Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:49 pm
List in E is not parallel too

Hope..Propose..Demand that

Also, List of items must be of the processes or methods ( How? officials hope to end )

One more A!
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by nox104 » Mon Dec 15, 2008 3:05 pm
I vote for D. The subordinate clauses need the verb "are" IMO.
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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Dec 15, 2008 4:18 pm
I received a PM asking me to reply. (Also, FYI, I won't be able to respond to any PMs / answer any more questions until around the second week in January.)

I'm not a big fan of this problem. It doesn't seem very GMAT-like to me.

I assume that the missing "s" at the end of "others" in answer choice E is merely a typo. If the problem really does say "other" instead of "others," then what I say below is invalid because E is wrong.

The sentence contains a list of three. Both A and E demonstrate parallelism (but with slightly different structures). B, C, and D don't.

A:
Some officials hope to end the border skirmish <by -ing A>, others <by -ing B>, and still others <by -ing C>.

E:
Some officials <hope A>, others <propose B>, and still others <demand C>.

Problem with A: "by proposing imposing stiff economic sanctions..." Is imposing an adjective here, modifying sanctions, similiar to "he has an imposing presence"? As in: sanctions that are imposing? Or is the proposal to impose sanctions? I'm not sure. That's a clarity issue.

Problem with A: item C on the list. "officials hope to end the skirmish by demanding that NATO <do something>." Will the demand actually end the skirmish? No - only if NATO agrees to do something.

Problem with E: the placement of the word "stiff" - in the original sentence, the sanctions themselves were described as "stiff." Now, the imposition is described as "stiff" - why the change? There's nothing wrong with calling the sanctions stiff.

E does, however, clear up the other two problems with A. Now it's clear that we have a proposal to impose sanctions, not a proposal for sanctions that have an imposing characteristic. And now we have "officials demand that NATO <do something>" which skirts the earlier problem (that the officials hoped to end the skirmish by making a demand).

So, as I mentioned, I don't like this one overall, but if I had to choose, I guess I'd go with E. But I would also stop studying this one right now.
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by ronniecoleman » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:51 pm
Caught a bit offguard !!

Logical sense i think IMO A
But

then again i again clearly reading thru the sentence, bit confused :roll:

IMO E
Some hope, other propose...still other demand
also we are assuming that other [ hope to end border skirmis] by proposing .......[ hope.......] by demanding...

Don't know how justified is that....

But my Heart lies with IMO A




Some State Dept officials hope to end border skirmish by bargaining with the new dictator, others by proposing imposing stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others by demanding that NATO launch a full scale operation.
A. by proposing imposing stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others by demanding
B. by proposing the imposition of stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others demand
C. propose imposing stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others are demanding
D. are proposing the stiff imposition of economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still others are demanding
E. propose the stiff imposition of economic sanctions on the country's exports, and still other demand ::
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by 4meonly » Tue Dec 16, 2008 12:32 am
I agree that E has better parallel structure, however I think A has more clear logic

Some State Dept officials hope to end border skirmish
by bargaining with the new dictator,
others by proposing imposing stiff economic sanctions on the country's exports,
and still others by demanding that NATO launch a full scale operation.

All State Dept officials hope to end border skirmish but they have different views on the methods.

I think it is A.
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by Stacey Koprince » Tue Dec 16, 2008 12:47 am
Yep - yet another reason why I don't really like this one overall.

I also forgot to add: on the real test, you'll never see a correct answer that uses "proposing imposing" - it'll say something like "proposing to impose" or "proposing the imposition of" or something other than that awkward double -ing set-up. :)
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by 4meonly » Tue Dec 16, 2008 1:27 am
Stacey forever!!!!
Thanx! :D
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