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Speed limit - long one!

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Speed limit - long one!

by DanaJ » Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:56 am
Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

A. Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
B. Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
C. Regarded by opponents as ineffective meddling and by supporters as the conservation of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
D. The fight over the speed limit, regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
E. The fight over the speed limit, a measure regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.


OA after some replies!
Last edited by DanaJ on Thu Aug 25, 2011 10:59 am, edited 2 times in total.
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by limestone » Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:09 am
IMO: A

B,C: Regarded ..., the speed limit continues ... Subject - verb unagreement: "the speed limit" should be " the fight over the speed limit"
D: The fight over the speed limit, regarded by ... What does "regarded" modify for, "the speed limit" or "the fight over"? Ambiguos
E: The fight over the speed limit, a measure ... Like "regarded", What "a measure" modifies for?

Anyone has another explanation?
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by Maciek » Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:33 am
IMO E

answers A and D both are unclear in the same way. What exactly does the modifying clause describe?
regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy
Is this "the speed limit" or "the fight"?

Hope it helps!
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by saurabhmahajan » Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:50 am
IMO: E
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by blaster » Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:36 am
stuck between C and E . can someone give justification to E and why C is wrong?
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by singhsa » Wed Sep 01, 2010 5:00 am
I'm stuck b/w B and E. Though i think E wins because of the passive/active factor.

A - the fight is not regarded as ineffective. Wrong
B - Prob right
C - regarded as ineffective meddling. shd be ineffective and meddling
D - same as A.
E - Prob right
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by niksworth » Wed Sep 01, 2010 5:27 am
IMO E.

The key to this question is deciding whether Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy is modifying speed limit or fight over the speed limit.

I am of the opinion that the aforesaid modifier is modifying speed limit. (Or else, it would mean that the fight over speed limit is a conserver of life and energy. This doesn't make much sense to me.)

Consequently, A and D are ruled out because of the misplaced modifier.

Option C has ineffective meddling as its bane. (Meddling is not ineffective, having a speed limit is. Ineffective wrongly modifies meddling)

B eliminates the modifier error correctly, but its construction of continues to be fought over in our legislatures is awkward.

E is the best choice. It correctly uses a measure regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy as an appositive for speed limit and the core of the sentence - The fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways. is loud and clear in its delivery.
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by mithilesh.vnit85 » Wed Sep 01, 2010 6:02 am
I am having doubt in D and E, Can you please tell me why D is wrong option?
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by reply2spg » Wed Sep 01, 2010 6:59 am
IMO C is the correct answer.

Regarded what - speed

Eliminate A, D and E.

I eliminited B, because it lacks ||ism. Why - regarded as ineffective and as meddlesome - missing as

OA please
DanaJ wrote:Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

A. Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
B. Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
C. Regarded by opponents as ineffective meddling and by supporters as the conservation of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
D. The fight over the speed limit, regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
E. The fight over the speed limit, a measure regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

Source: Beat The GMAT Practice Questions

OA after some replies!
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by Prashantbhardwaj » Wed Sep 01, 2010 7:02 am
I feel that 'speed limit' needs to be the subject of this sentence.

So only B and C can be correct according to me.

B has parallelism in 'Ineffective' 'Meddlesome' and 'a conserver' all nouns
C lacks parallelism

Therefore IMO B.
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by uwhusky » Wed Sep 01, 2010 8:28 am
Dana, please provide more modifier questions like this one =).
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by FightWithGMAT » Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:44 am
DanaJ wrote:Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

A. Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
B. Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
C. Regarded by opponents as ineffective meddling and by supporters as the conservation of life and energy, the speed limit continues to be fought over in our legislatures and on our freeways.
D. The fight over the speed limit, regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.
E. The fight over the speed limit, a measure regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

Source: Beat The GMAT Practice Questions

OA after some replies!
Contextually, only peed Limit can be ineffective, meddlesome and conserver of life and energy.

IMO B.
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by DanaJ » Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:09 pm
So the OA here is E!

@uwhusky: just stumbled upon it in the Beat The GMAT Practice Questions... While I don't have a specific set of questions with modifiers, I have seen quite a few in this resource, especially one really tough one with Italians and Slavs... If I find it again, I'll post it!

Anyway, here's my take on this question:

So the way it's structured right now, the modifier is incorrectly placed (as many of you have noticed). It's not the "fight over the speed limit" that's meddlesome or a conserver of life and energy, it's the speed limit itself. We need to find the answer choice that correctly attaches the modifier ("Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy") to its correct noun ("speed limit"). This way, we can eliminate A for sure. D is also wrong because of the same reason: incorrectly placed modifier.

C is wrong because there's no parallelism between "ineffective meddling" (verb) and "the conservation of life and energy" (noun). Also, the use of "the" in bold is unnecessary. "The" suggests that the speed limit is "the one and only" (to quote a song :D) saver of energy and life, which is obviously not the case - I can think of a million other things that can save more lives and energy :)

Now, you guys have successfully narrowed it down to B and E... E is better here because of the use of the passive voice in B. In general, you should avoid the passive voice in the GMAT, because it's considered wordy. "To be fought over" is also pretty vague - who fights over it? The official explanation also cites "a pile-up of prepositions" in "to be fought over in".
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by wildkitty » Sat Oct 30, 2010 12:48 pm
Regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, the fight over the speed limit continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

E. The fight over the speed limit, a measure regarded by opponents as ineffective and meddlesome and by supporters as a conserver of life and energy, continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

The sentence is about the speed limit - which is ineffective and meddlesome to those who oppose the MEASURE of speed by establishing a limit to it - and also described as a conserver of life and energy by those who support the establishment of a limit to the measure of speed. The fight over the relevance of established speed limits continues in our legislatures and on our freeways.

It also reads well :)
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by amoln » Sun Oct 31, 2010 12:57 am
DanaJ - What would you say this question to be, a 700+ or 750+?
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