Tobacco SC

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Wed Dec 24, 2014 1:06 am

3) The verbs "enters" and "slowing" are not parallel.

^^ there's no reason why they should be parallel, since they aren't in a parallel construction.
"slowing" is a modifier. modifiers NEVER have to be parallel to the stuff they modify.

if we change "entering..." to "that enters..." (but leave "slowing" alone), we get another perfectly workable sentence. the meaning is slightly different, but still eminently reasonable.

Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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saurabh99: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2014 12:14 am

by saurabh99 » Wed Dec 24, 2014 1:33 am

lunarpower wrote:
2) The pronoun "it" is vague.
in context, it's clear that "it" = oxygen, and oxygen is a singular noun. for the GMAT, that's good enough.

more importantly, talking about "vague pronouns" sets a bad precedent for the GMAT, which tests no such thing.
if the GMAT tests a pronoun error, that error will be black-and-white. e.g., singular pronoun vs. plural noun, or pronoun vs. something that isn't a noun.

trying to eliminate "vague pronouns" is going to lead to a very large frequency of false positives (= inadvertently eliminating the correct answer).

Hi Ron,
Rewriting the sentence with option C inserted

In an effort to reduce the number of fires started by cigarettes, a major tobacco company is test-marketing a cigarette that uses thin layers of extra paper to decrease the amount of oxygen when it enters the cigarette, thereby slowing the rate at which it burns and lowering the heat it generates.

The 'it' after the underlined portion refers to 'oxygen'.
Is my thinking correct???

Thanks,
Saurabh

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saurabh99: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 3; Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2014 12:14 am

by saurabh99 » Wed Dec 24, 2014 1:34 am

lunarpower wrote:
2) The pronoun "it" is vague.
in context, it's clear that "it" = oxygen, and oxygen is a singular noun. for the GMAT, that's good enough.

more importantly, talking about "vague pronouns" sets a bad precedent for the GMAT, which tests no such thing.
if the GMAT tests a pronoun error, that error will be black-and-white. e.g., singular pronoun vs. plural noun, or pronoun vs. something that isn't a noun.

trying to eliminate "vague pronouns" is going to lead to a very large frequency of false positives (= inadvertently eliminating the correct answer).

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Wed Dec 24, 2014 2:17 am

good observation.
in the context of the original sentence, the red "it" is the cigarette itself.

that is an actual conflict (with the immediately preceding "it", which is used to refer to something else).
notice that there's no "vagueness"; the problem is that the different "it"s are unambiguously meant to refer to two precise, but different, nouns.

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