The Christmas holiday

Question

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]

BastiG · Answer

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

Jim@Grockit · Answer

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

Deepthi Subbu · Answer

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

gsinghal · Answer

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

gmat062011 · Answer

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

ov25 · Answer

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

honeysn · Answer

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.

gsinghal · Answer

hi honeysn... thanks for clearing the doubt. It really helped. Thanks Gautam

gmatdriller · Answer

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

Jim@Grockit · Answer

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.

aspirant2011 · Answer

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

Jim@Grockit · Answer

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.

patanjali.purpose · Answer

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

studentps2011 · Answer

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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