Holstein Cows

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nakul_anand: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 74; Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 4:20 pm; Thanked: 4 times

by nakul_anand » Sun May 02, 2010 5:27 pm

For a farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2275 gallons of milk each per year.

(A) providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
(B) providing them with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
(C) provided with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing
(D) provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, the Holstein cow produces
(E) provided with high-energy feed, and milked regularly, Holstein cows will produce

[spoiler]OA: E[/spoiler]

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun May 02, 2010 5:27 pm

tpr-becky: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 509; Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:08 pmFollowed by: 85 members; Location: Irvine, CA; Thanked: 199 times; GMAT Score:750

by tpr-becky » Sun May 02, 2010 6:18 pm

First Provide and milk have to be parallel because they are in a list so this knocks out B and C. Then we need many cows because of the "them" in the begining of the sentence - this knocks out D. Between A and E we have present or future tense on the "are producing" vs "will produce" - here you would need the future becuase if you do these things then the cows will produce this much milk. So the correct answer is E.

Becky
Master GMAT Instructor
The Princeton Review
Irvine, CA

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nakul_anand: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 74; Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 4:20 pm; Thanked: 4 times

by nakul_anand » Mon May 03, 2010 2:13 am

Hello Becky,

Thanks for the reply!

The tenses make a little more sense now than they did before. But I am still confused regarding the construction of the sentence.

Option E - Shouldn't 'them' accompany high-energy feed and milked regularly just for the sake of clarity in meaning?

Thanks in advance!
Nakul

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paes: Legendary Member; Posts: 995; Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 31 times

by paes » Mon May 03, 2010 2:31 am

tpr-becky wrote:First Provide and milk have to be parallel because they are in a list so this knocks out B and C. Then we need many cows because of the "them" in the begining of the sentence - this knocks out D. Between A and E we have present or future tense on the "are producing" vs "will produce" - here you would need the future becuase if you do these things then the cows will produce this much milk. So the correct answer is E.

How do we know that milking should be parallel with providing.
If we think that the following red colored should be in parallel then is there something wrong grammatically ?
For a farmer who takes care to keep them cool, providing them with high-energy feed, and milking them regularly, Holstein cows are producing an average of 2275 gallons of milk each per year.
[/b]

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pradeepkaushal9518: Legendary Member; Posts: 1309; Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:41 pmFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 33 times

by pradeepkaushal9518 » Mon May 03, 2010 4:09 am

i am not clear with will produce and are producing. holstein cows are producing that much of milk every year. how can we know that how much they will produce in advance

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FightWithGMAT: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 364; Joined: Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:13 amFollowed by: 3 members; Thanked: 31 times

by FightWithGMAT » Mon May 03, 2010 4:21 am

How the 2 elements are parallel with the first one, and before that what is the first element of the list?????

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sandy_online: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 17; Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2009 11:40 am; Thanked: 2 times

by sandy_online » Mon May 03, 2010 5:28 am

tpr-becky wrote:First Provide and milk have to be parallel because they are in a list so this knocks out B and C. Then we need many cows because of the "them" in the begining of the sentence - this knocks out D. Between A and E we have present or future tense on the "are producing" vs "will produce" - here you would need the future becuase if you do these things then the cows will produce this much milk. So the correct answer is E.

thank you for the explanation. Here I have doubt about the construction of the sentence. If I am not wrong then each item in the list should be able to stand with main subject and verb. As you explained, the second item " provided with high-energy feed", how it adjust with other first item in list. for example it is correct to say "farmer who takes care to keep them cool" but how the construction of "provided with high-energy feed" works? is it "farmer who provided them with high-energy feed"?
or "farmer who takes care to provided them with high-energy feed" ? I am just confused. Is not this sentence be something on this line "farmer who provides them with high-energy feed"? thanks

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tpr-becky: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 509; Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 1:08 pmFollowed by: 85 members; Location: Irvine, CA; Thanked: 199 times; GMAT Score:750

by tpr-becky » Mon May 03, 2010 6:21 am

You are all correct, I do not like the construction of this sentence at all and I wonder where the question came from. The comma before the and is superfluous but it is in each of the answers. With the answer choices available you have to assume that the cows are being "provided with food and milked" because none of the answers work to be parallel with farmer who keep. This is one of the situations in which I could write a better and more clear sentence but I have to deal with the choices provided and of them E is the best. Ultimately you need "holstein cows" to match them and "will produce" to work with the "for a farmer part of the sentence" and provided and milked are parallel that refer to the cows.

Always remember on the GMAT you are looking for answers not solutions; that you just need to find a way to pick one of the answers in a reasoned and logical way, not find a complete, airtight, solution.

Becky
Master GMAT Instructor
The Princeton Review
Irvine, CA

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aspirant2010: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 51; Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2010 10:09 am

by aspirant2010 » Mon May 03, 2010 9:35 am

I dont think so answer should be E....can anyone confirm whether the answer E is correct or not?

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vineetbatra: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 355; Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:42 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 2 times

by vineetbatra » Mon May 10, 2010 11:28 am

Hello Becky,

Can you please explain what "providing them with high energy feed and milking them regularly" is modifying in A. Is it the previous sentence or the Holstein Cows, in my opinion it is the holstein cows since the first sentence is also a modifier.

Thanks,

Vineet

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