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ashforgmat: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 71; Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:16 pm; Thanked: 3 times; GMAT Score:750

Federal authorities have found...

by ashforgmat » Mon Nov 01, 2010 1:50 am

Federal authorities involved in the investigation have found the local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and are suspicious of strangers.
(A) the local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and are
(B) local witnesses to be difficult to locate, reticent, and are
(C) that local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and
(D) local witnesses are difficult to locate and reticent, and they are
(E) that local witnesses are difficult to locate and reticent, and they are

Hi All,

Please can someone explain the problem with each answer choice, specifically what is the \\llelism/list marker in the above sentence...i am having trouble finding out what is the precise meaning when an 'and' comes after a comma.....

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Mon Nov 01, 2010 1:50 am

pesfunk: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 286; Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2010 5:36 pm; Location: Kolkata, India; Thanked: 11 times; Followed by:5 members

by pesfunk » Mon Nov 01, 2010 3:16 am

IMO C

we dont need sentences ending with "are" as in option C, the "are" works in common for all 3:

difficult to locate
reticent
suspicious of strangers

ashforgmat wrote:Federal authorities involved in the investigation have found the local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and are suspicious of strangers.
(A) the local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and are
(B) local witnesses to be difficult to locate, reticent, and are
(C) that local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and
(D) local witnesses are difficult to locate and reticent, and they are
(E) that local witnesses are difficult to locate and reticent, and they are

Hi All,

Please can someone explain the problem with each answer choice, specifically what is the \\llelism/list marker in the above sentence...i am having trouble finding out what is the precise meaning when an 'and' comes after a comma.....

Quote

taneja.niks: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 70; Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 9:41 am; Thanked: 2 times

by taneja.niks » Mon Nov 01, 2010 4:22 am

Federal authorities involved in the investigation have found the local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and are suspicious of strangers.
(A) the local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and are
(B) local witnesses to be difficult to locate, reticent, and are
(C) that local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and
(D) local witnesses are difficult to locate and reticent, and they are
(E) that local witnesses are difficult to locate and reticent, and they are

First we need to look for choices that start with "that" to modify the right thing specifying what they found.... as the Federal authorities found that local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent,and suspicious of strangers.
so C and E remain....

(E) the use of and is redundant so (C) remains

Pick C...
Please post the answer as well.

Last edited by taneja.niks on Mon Nov 01, 2010 9:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

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kapur.arnav: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 126; Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 9:36 am; Thanked: 6 times

by kapur.arnav » Mon Nov 01, 2010 9:10 am

ashforgmat wrote:Federal authorities involved in the investigation have found the local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and are suspicious of strangers.
(A) the local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and are
(B) local witnesses to be difficult to locate, reticent, and are
(C) that local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and
(D) local witnesses are difficult to locate and reticent, and they are
(E) that local witnesses are difficult to locate and reticent, and they are

Hi All,

Please can someone explain the problem with each answer choice, specifically what is the \\llelism/list marker in the above sentence...i am having trouble finding out what is the precise meaning when an 'and' comes after a comma.....

Read the sentence as:

Federal authorities involved in the investigation have found the local witnesses are difficult to locate, (are) reticent, and (are) suspicious of strangers.

Are in brackets is redundant... we don't need to use it again... C depcits this and is the best choice...

Federal authorities involved in the investigation have found the local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and are suspicious of strangers.

(A) the local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and are - are is redundant
(B) local witnesses to be difficult to locate, reticent, and are - to be is passive, not reqd...
(C) that local witnesses are difficult to locate, reticent, and - correct
(D) local witnesses are difficult to locate and reticent, and they are - locate and reticent - incorrect
(E) that local witnesses are difficult to locate and reticent, and they are - they are - redundant

Hope it helps