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Ex - 1 European Leaders

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by e-GMAT » Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:57 am
This question is the first practice problem of meaning based questions that tests use of modifiers.

For more details on the strategies that GMAT uses to distort meaning, refer to this article.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/07/ ... ing-part-2

Example 1 - European leaders

European leaders, who met until the early hours of Friday, agreed for signing, with the head of the World Bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require it to enforce stricter fiscal and financial discipline in their future budgets

1. for signing, with the head of the World Bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require it
2. to sign an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the world bank who would require them
3. to sign an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the world bank, requiring them
4. to sign, with the head of the world bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require them
5. for signing an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the World Bank that would require them

We will soon provide the detailed official solution.
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by sureshkanagala » Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:15 am
My Answer: 3

1 and 5 are immediately out because they are idiomatically incorrect.
2 is sounding odd because of the usage of the word 'who'.
4 is stretchy
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by ranjeet75 » Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:34 am
My answer is [spoiler]3[/spoiler]

1. The use of "it" is wrong
2. the use of "who" after "world bank"
5. the use of "that" after "world bank" changes the meaning and it would mean that the world bank, not the treaty will require
4. Just not sounding good the use of "that would require"
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by vk_vinayak » Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:38 am
e-GMAT wrote:This question is the first practice problem of meaning based questions that tests use of modifiers.

For more details on the strategies that GMAT uses to distort meaning, refer to this article.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/07/ ... ing-part-2

Example 1 - European leaders

European leaders, who met until the early hours of Friday, agreed for signing, with the head of the World Bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require it to enforce stricter fiscal and financial discipline in their future budgets

1. for signing, with the head of the World Bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require it
2. to sign an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the world bank who would require them
3. to sign an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the world bank, requiring them
4. to sign, with the head of the world bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require them
5. for signing an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the World Bank that would require them

We will soon provide the detailed official solution.
My pick [spoiler]D (or 4)[/spoiler]

Agreed for signing is not correct, when you want to show the intent. 'to sign' is the correct idiom.

1. It refers to treaty, while European leaders are required to enforce the stricter discipline.

2. and 3 suggest that treaty has a head, while world bank has a head. European leaders, along with the head of world bank, signed the treaty.

5. Incorrectly Says that World bank would require them to enforce the stricter discipline. It is the treaty that require European leaders to enforce the stricter discipline

3. Incorrectly Says that European leaders require themselves to enforce the stricter discipline

4 is correct.
- VK

I will (Learn. Recognize. Apply)
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by kartikshah » Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:43 am
I would pick D.
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by bubbliiiiiiii » Tue Jul 24, 2012 4:22 am
e-GMAT wrote:
European leaders, who met until the early hours of Friday, agreed for signing, with the head of the World Bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require it to enforce stricter fiscal and financial discipline in their future budgets

1. for signing, with the head of the World Bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require it
2. to sign an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the world bank who would require them
3. to sign an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the world bank, requiring them
4. to sign, with the head of the world bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require them
5. for signing an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the World Bank that would require them
IMO D

A and E are incorrect because of usage of agreed for signing.

Among B, C and D.

B - Although grammatically correct, it incorrectly conveys the meaning that head of world bank will make the European leaders to enforce something.

C - We can infer two issues with this sentence.
1 - requiring modifies subject of the previous clause (European leaders). It tries to convey that European leaders required 'them' (no antecedent so assuming themselves) to do something. Thus, incorrect.
2 - The pronoun 'them' is incorrectly used here. It has does not have a logical antecedent.

D - This option correctly conveys the meaning that the required European leaders (them) to do something.

Please correct me if my understanding is improper.
Regards,

Pranay
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by e-GMAT » Tue Jul 24, 2012 7:24 am
Here is the official explanation for this question:

European leaders, who met until the early hours of Friday, agreed for signing, with the head of the World Bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require it to enforce stricter fiscal and financial discipline in their future budgets.

A. for signing, with the head of the World Bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require it
B. to sign an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the world bank who would require them
C. to sign an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the world bank, requiring them
D. to sign, with the head of the world bank, an intergovernmental treaty that would require them
E. for signing an intergovernmental treaty with the head of the World Bank that would require them

Image

The sentence states the following:
"¢ European leaders met until Friday morning
"¢ They agreed to sign a treaty - an intergovernmental treaty.
"¢ They agreed to sign this treaty with the head of the World Bank.
"¢ This treaty would require the leaders to enforce stricter fiscal and financial discipline in their future budgets.

Image

"¢ European leaders,
o who met until the early hours of Friday,
"¢ agreed for signing, with the head of the World Bank, an intergovernmental treaty
"¢ that would require it to enforce stricter fiscal and financial discipline in their future budgets.

The sentence has been simplified into its clauses as shown above. All subject verb pairs are accounted for.
The pronoun "it" in underlined portion of the sentence logically refers to "European leaders" but does not agree in number with its antecedent. Thus, this sentence has pronoun-antecedent number agreement error. Notice that the other pronoun "their" in non-underlined portion also logically refers to "European leaders". Context of the sentence requires both these pronouns to refer to the "leaders".
Furthermore, the expression "for signing" is not appropriate. The sentence expresses an intention here - leaders agreed to do something. Thus, the more appropriate expression is "to sign".

POE

Choice B - Even though this choice is grammatically correct, it is not the correct answer since it distorts the meaning of the original sentence. The sentence per choice B implies that the head of the World Bank would require the leaders to enforce stricter rules. Even though this is logical, it is not what the original sentence states. Per the original sentence, it is the treaty that will enforce these regulations.

Choice C - This choice is grammatically correct but it no longer communicates the logical intended meaning of the sentence. By changing the "that modifier" into a "verb-ing modifier", this sentence now implies that merely by agreeing to sign this treaty would result in enforcement of stricter controls and regulations. This is clearly not the logical sense.

Choice D - Correct choice.

Choice E - This choice repeats the "for signing" error as in choice A. Furthermore, the structure of this choice is such that now it is no longer clear what would require the leaders to enforce stricter controls. - the World Bank or the treaty. Notice carefully the change in placement of the modifiers in this choice.

Image

1. Understand the intended meaning of the sentence well before you review the answer choices. If you do not do so, you may mark the seemingly correct choice as the correct answer when this choice in fact changes the meaning of the sentence.
2. Notice carefully any change in the modifier structure itself. The changed modifier may change the meaning of the sentence while still being grammatically correct and/or logically sound.
3. Use "to verb" to present intention.

Thanks.
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by mv12 » Tue Jul 24, 2012 7:58 am
I also picked D
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by bubbliiiiiiii » Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:13 am
Thanks e-gmat for posting the solution.

Are you picking up best explanation and rewarding the person who presented the best presentation with access to GMAT Sentence correction kit as you have done earlier?
Regards,

Pranay
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