Sentence Correction

When i read option C, it seemed that design allows turtle to draw in its exposed parts and that design allows attacker to find nothing, which is non-sensical. An attacker finding nothing should be preceded by turtle drawing in its exposed parts, therefore phrase before "AND" and after that should be sequenced somehow.

cramya wrote:The particular design of muscles and bones in the neck and limbs of the turtle allow that it can draw in its exposed parts such that an attacker can find nothing but hard shell to bite.

A. allow that it can draw in its exposed parts such that
B. allow it to draw in its exposed parts, and so
C. allows for it to draw in its exposed parts and that
D. allows that it can draw in its exposed parts, and so
E. allows it to draw in its exposed parts, so that


Source: Another gmat forum

None of the answers as stated are correct.

E would be correct if we add "an" at the end, but "so that attacker can find..." makes no sense. We could also change "attacker" to "attackers" to fix the problem.

C has the same issue... "and that attacker can find..." is equally flawed. In fact, all of the choices have this problem, leading me to believe that the question hasn't been properly transcribed.

Ignoring that issue, E is by far the best choice. Looking at the bones of the sentence, we have:

"The design allows it to do x, so that... "

which is both gramatically and stylistically correct.

In C, we have:

"The design allows for it to do x and that..."

"allows for it" is stylistically inferior, since it uses and extra word to convey the same meaning. Additionally, by changing from "such that" to "and that" we alter the meaning of the sentence; "such that" indicates a causal relationship (i.e. the first allows the second), "and that" indicates a correlation (i.e. the two both happen, but one doesn't trigger the other).

Thanks for your reply Stuart. I have a question -

I know that "so X that Y" is the correct usage but in E we have "so that" is it correct or not?

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:

cramya wrote:The particular design of muscles and bones in the neck and limbs of the turtle allow that it can draw in its exposed parts such that an attacker can find nothing but hard shell to bite.

A. allow that it can draw in its exposed parts such that
B. allow it to draw in its exposed parts, and so
C. allows for it to draw in its exposed parts and that
D. allows that it can draw in its exposed parts, and so
E. allows it to draw in its exposed parts, so that


Source: Another gmat forum

None of the answers as stated are correct.

E would be correct if we add "an" at the end, but "so that attacker can find..." makes no sense. We could also change "attacker" to "attackers" to fix the problem.

C has the same issue... "and that attacker can find..." is equally flawed. In fact, all of the choices have this problem, leading me to believe that the question hasn't been properly transcribed.

Ignoring that issue, E is by far the best choice. Looking at the bones of the sentence, we have:

"The design allows it to do x, so that... "

which is both gramatically and stylistically correct.

In C, we have:

"The design allows for it to do x and that..."

"allows for it" is stylistically inferior, since it uses and extra word to convey the same meaning. Additionally, by changing from "such that" to "and that" we alter the meaning of the sentence; "such that" indicates a causal relationship (i.e. the first allows the second), "and that" indicates a correlation (i.e. the two both happen, but one doesn't trigger the other).

mehravikas wrote:Thanks for your reply Stuart. I have a question -

I know that "so X that Y" is the correct usage but in E we have "so that" is it correct or not?

"so that" is just fine when used to indicate a reason for something else. For example:

"I went to the store so that my mother wouldn't have to."

"He sprayed his crops with pesticide so that the bugs wouldn't return."

"She salted the driveway so that no one would slip and fall on the ice."

Thanks Stuart...

what is the OA???