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Angola, which was ravaged by civil war for many years after

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Angola, which was ravaged by civil war for many years after

by kvcpk » Sat Jul 17, 2010 6:31 am

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MGMAT SC guide has the following sentence:

Angola, which was ravaged by civil war for many years after it gained independence from Portugal, which is now one of Africa's success stories, has an economy that grew by 21% last year, where parliamentary elections are to be held later this week.

Book says the correct Sentence is

Ravaged by civil war for many years after it gained independence from Portugal, Angola is now one of Africa's success stories: its economy grew by 21% last year, and parliamentary elections are to be held later this week.

My doubt is
"parliamentary elections are to be held later this week. " doesnt say that the elections are going to be held at Angola.

Can someone let me know where I am going wrong?
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by Patrick_GMATFix » Sat Jul 17, 2010 6:40 am

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The sentence (in green) is grammatically right and the meaning is clear. The focus (grammatical subject) is 'Angola' since everything before it is a modifier for Angola and the last part of the sentence follows a colon. In grammar, the part after a colon is an expounding, further explanation, or list of what preceded the colon. In this case, the two clauses after the colon explain how "Angola is a success story"

In short, the meaning is clear enough that there is nothing wrong with simply saying that elections are to be held.

-Patrick
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by kvcpk » Sat Jul 17, 2010 6:45 am

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Patrick_GMATFix wrote:The sentence (in green) is grammatically right and the meaning is clear. The focus (grammatical subject) is 'Angola' since everything before it is a modifier for Angola and the last part of the sentence follows a colon. In grammar, the part after a colon is an expounding, further explanation, or list of what preceded the colon. In this case, the two clauses after the colon explain how "Angola is a success story"

In short, the meaning is clear enough that there is nothing wrong with simply saying that elections are to be held.

-Patrick
Hi Patrick, Thanks for your prompt response.
But I still have doubt on how "and parliamentary elections are to be held later this week" could mean that the elections are going to be held at Angola. They can be held in any place.

I felt, "and will hold parlimentary elections later this week" will be a better phrase.
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by Patrick_GMATFix » Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:03 am

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kvcpk wrote:Ravaged by civil war for many years after it gained independence from Portugal, Angola is now one of Africa's success stories: its economy grew by 21% last year, and parliamentary elections are to be held later this week.
kvcpk, I understand what you are saying. Perhaps the green sentence would be improved with the inclusion of 'there' between 'to be held' and 'later this week'.

We could not finish the sentence as you suggested with 'and will hold parliamentary elections later this week'. If so the sentence would say:

"Angola is a success: its economy grew by 21% last year, and will hold parliamentary elections later this week." This would create a meaning error by suggesting that the economy will hold elections.

Perhaps this would be the case of picking the best available answer. Sometimes the way you would write a sentence is not provided so you pick the answer that is grammatically right and best conveys the meaning.

-Patrick
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by kvcpk » Sat Jul 17, 2010 8:09 am

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Patrick_GMATFix wrote:
kvcpk wrote:Ravaged by civil war for many years after it gained independence from Portugal, Angola is now one of Africa's success stories: its economy grew by 21% last year, and parliamentary elections are to be held later this week.
kvcpk, I understand what you are saying. Perhaps the green sentence would be improved with the inclusion of 'there' between 'to be held' and 'later this week'.

We could not finish the sentence as you suggested with 'and will hold parliamentary elections later this week'. If so the sentence would say:

"Angola is a success: its economy grew by 21% last year, and will hold parliamentary elections later this week." This would create a meaning error by suggesting that the economy will hold elections.

Perhaps this would be the case of picking the best available answer. Sometimes the way you would write a sentence is not provided so you pick the answer that is grammatically right and best conveys the meaning.

-Patrick
Thanks for your valuable inputs Patrick.
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by lunarpower » Tue Jul 20, 2010 2:05 am

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patrick gives good advice earlier in this thread.

to add on to what patrick is saying, note that, in general, you should not concern yourself with differences in meaning, unless there are two or more choices that are grammatically correct.
it's actually quite common to see a problem with a correct answer that changes the meaning somewhat -- but in which the other four answer choices are ungrammatical.
in such cases, the fact that the new answer choice changes the meaning (slightly; the change in meaning will never be obnoxiously huge) is irrelevant, since the other four choices are wrong.
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by kvcpk » Tue Jul 20, 2010 2:12 am

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lunarpower wrote:patrick gives good advice earlier in this thread.

to add on to what patrick is saying, note that, in general, you should not concern yourself with differences in meaning, unless there are two or more choices that are grammatically correct.
it's actually quite common to see a problem with a correct answer that changes the meaning somewhat -- but in which the other four answer choices are ungrammatical.
in such cases, the fact that the new answer choice changes the meaning (slightly; the change in meaning will never be obnoxiously huge) is irrelevant, since the other four choices are wrong.
Thanks for the response Ron. This was a practice exercise question from MGMAT SC Book. There are no choices.
I did not expect some answer to change meaning in the practice questions. That worried me.
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Re: Angola, which was ravaged by civil war for many years after

by omkartadsare » Sat May 22, 2021 3:43 am

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Hello Good people on this forum, sorry to dig this one out again.

Request you to help me out on this one. If I rephrase the sentence like below, will it be grammatically correct and unambiguous?

Wrong sentence- Angola, which was ravaged by civil war for many years after it gained independence
from Portugal, which is now one of Africa's success stories, has an economy that grew by
21 % last year, where parliamentary elections are to be held later this week.

Rephrased- Ravaged by civil war for many years after gaining independence from Portugal, Angola- where parliamentary elections are to be held later this week- has an economy that grew by 21% last year and is now one of Africa’s success stories.
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