The Christmas holiday

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Target2009: Legendary Member; Posts: 574; Joined: Sat Oct 31, 2009 1:47 pmFollowed by: 5 members; Location: USA; Thanked: 29 times

by Target2009 » Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:41 pm

The Christmas holiday brought a brief respite to opposing armies during World War I in that an unofficial ceasefire spread along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914.

A. armies during World War I in that an unofficial ceasefire spread along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914
B. armies during World War I, spreading an unofficial ceasefire along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914
C. armies during World War I when they spread an unofficial ceasefire along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914
D. armies during World War I, for an unofficial ceasefire spread along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914
E. armies during World War I by the spread of an unofficial ceasefire along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914

[spoiler]Source : Grockit, OA : After Some time[/spoiler]

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:41 pm

BastiG: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 146; Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2010 5:05 am; Thanked: 7 times

by BastiG » Sat Jan 08, 2011 9:54 pm

I cant decide between a and d. Other answer choices are wrong for obvious reasons.

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Jim@Grockit: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 641; Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:07 pmFollowed by: 45 members; Location: Madison, WI; Thanked: 162 times; GMAT Score:760

by Jim@Grockit » Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:23 pm

This one is challenging because "for" has a rarer meaning "because."

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Deepthi Subbu: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 298; Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2010 1:09 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 2 times

by Deepthi Subbu » Sun Jan 09, 2011 10:56 pm

I would go with D .

There's a problem in OG12 similar to this question . You may go thro the explanation provided in the OG for better understanding.

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the
pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred
truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.
(A) world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed
during the festival's month
(B) world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the
festival's month
(C) world when they proclaimed a sacred truce for
the festival month
(D) world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during
the month of the festival
(E) world by proclamation of a sacred truce that
was for the month of the festival

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gsinghal: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 68; Joined: Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:22 amFollowed by: 1 member

by gsinghal » Sun Jun 19, 2011 12:07 pm

hi.. reopening an old thread...

can anyone let me know what is the problem wid B...spreading is modifying the whole clause before the comma..then y it is wrong... I think I am missing some logic..please help.

Thanks
Gautam

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gmat062011: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 29; Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 1:44 am; Thanked: 2 times

by gmat062011 » Sun Jun 19, 2011 3:58 pm

D is correct.

clause (reason), spearding clause (impact) --> correct

but in this scenario

clause (impact), because (for) clause (reason) --> correct

Please correct me, if wrong

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ov25: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 201; Joined: Sat Jul 10, 2010 2:23 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 7 times

by ov25 » Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:00 pm

So Jim,

the way we should decide in this case is minimum words (for, in that, by the spread of)?

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honeysn: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 28; Joined: Wed May 06, 2009 5:00 pm; Thanked: 1 times

by honeysn » Sun Jun 19, 2011 6:44 pm

Hi Gautam,

B has following problem:

Per your statement, word 'spreading' modifies the clause before it -> Correct
But the clause is -> The Chistmas holiday brought respite ..., spreading ... -> This means either Christmas Holiday is spreading ceasefire OR respite is spreading ceasefire -> Both are incorrect

Sentence should be -> Christmas holiday brought respite .... because
As 'For' takes meaning of because in some scenarios .... sentence can be written as

Christmas holiday brought respite ..., for ...

Hope it helps.

Thanks.

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gsinghal: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 68; Joined: Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:22 amFollowed by: 1 member

by gsinghal » Mon Jun 20, 2011 8:02 am

hi honeysn...

thanks for clearing the doubt. It really helped.

Thanks
Gautam

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gmatdriller: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 418; Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2010 12:48 pmFollowed by: 3 members; Thanked: 6 times

by gmatdriller » Mon Oct 31, 2011 1:04 pm

Jim@Grockit wrote:This one is challenging because "for" has a rarer meaning "because."

Hi Jim,
Although there is a similar question on OG, it would be great if you could throw more insight
into this question.

I am more particular about options A and D.

Thanks

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Jim@Grockit: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 641; Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:07 pmFollowed by: 45 members; Location: Madison, WI; Thanked: 162 times; GMAT Score:760

by Jim@Grockit » Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:22 pm

This is one of those "more than one grammatically correct answer" questions that you can expect more of on the GMAT. A conjunction like "for" or "because" more clearly connects the two parts of the sentence, so the GMAT prefers that. Choice A is acceptable English; Choice D uses fewer words.

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aspirant2011: Legendary Member; Posts: 1574; Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:52 amFollowed by: 13 members; Thanked: 88 times

by aspirant2011 » Tue Nov 01, 2011 5:23 pm

Hi Jim,

According to you if we go for option A in GMAT then would that be wrong?

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Jim@Grockit: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 641; Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:07 pmFollowed by: 45 members; Location: Madison, WI; Thanked: 162 times; GMAT Score:760

by Jim@Grockit » Tue Nov 01, 2011 5:29 pm

aspirant2011 wrote:Hi Jim,

According to you if we go for option A in GMAT then would that be wrong?

According to me, yes. The GMAT likes its conjunctions to do logical "work", and it likes concision. The question is modeled after one from the OG, where "in that" was also wrong.

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patanjali.purpose: Legendary Member; Posts: 784; Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2011 3:51 amFollowed by: 12 members; Thanked: 114 times

by patanjali.purpose » Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:09 pm

Target2009 wrote:The Christmas holiday brought a brief respite to opposing armies during World War I in that an unofficial ceasefire spread along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914.

A. armies during World War I in that an unofficial ceasefire spread along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914
B. armies during World War I, spreading an unofficial ceasefire along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914
C. armies during World War I when they spread an unofficial ceasefire along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914
D. armies during World War I, for an unofficial ceasefire spread along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914
E. armies during World War I by the spread of an unofficial ceasefire along the Western Front on Christmas Eve, 1914

[spoiler]Source : Grockit, OA : After Some time[/spoiler]

A is also wrong because it does not use correct puntuation (comma) before IN THAT

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studentps2011: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 40; Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:37 am; Thanked: 3 times

by studentps2011 » Wed Nov 02, 2011 6:22 am

Is E grammatically wrong? If so, how? Can anyone please explain?

I understood the explanations about the other options; but couldn't rule E out.

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