Verbal review - SC 20 - Consumers cleaning product

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saxenashobhit: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 52; Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2010 8:53 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 1 times

by saxenashobhit » Wed Jun 29, 2011 7:37 pm

Consumers may not think of household cleaning products to be hazardous substances, but many of them can be harmful to health, especially if they are used improperly.
(A) Consumers may not think of household cleaning products to be
(B) Consumers may not think of household cleaning products being
(C) A consumer may not think of their household cleaning products being
(D) A consumer may not think of household cleaning products as
(E) Household cleaning products may not be thought of, by consumers, as

OA - D

When reading non-underlined portion, I felt cleaning product should be subject to clearly help pronouns they and them. Can you help know why E is wrong and how D is good from pronoun part

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Jun 29, 2011 7:37 pm

Ashley@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 199; Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 6:06 amFollowed by: 121 members; Location: Cambridge, MA; Thanked: 192 times; GMAT Score:780

by Ashley@VeritasPrep » Wed Jun 29, 2011 7:59 pm

Hi there,

D is definitely fine as far as pronouns are concerned, because the pronouns "them" and "they" are both plural like "household cleaning products," whereas "a consumer" is singular, so there's no danger of the pronoun's being construed as referring to it.

E is not grammatically *wrong*, but stylistically, it ranks pretty low, because it's very awkward and wordy to use the passive voice here ("household cleaning products may not be thought of by consumers as...") when we could instead use the far more concise active voice ("consumers may not think of household products as...").

Best,

Ashley Newman-Owens
GMAT Instructor
Veritas Prep

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vikram4689: Legendary Member; Posts: 1325; Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 amFollowed by: 14 members; Thanked: 105 times

by vikram4689 » Wed Jun 29, 2011 8:05 pm

E is awkward and moreover non of the options use IDIOM- think of X as Y.

Last edited by vikram4689 on Wed Jun 29, 2011 8:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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saxenashobhit: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 52; Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2010 8:53 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 1 times

by saxenashobhit » Wed Jun 29, 2011 8:31 pm

Ashley@VeritasPrep wrote:Hi there,

D is definitely fine as far as pronouns are concerned, because the pronouns "them" and "they" are both plural like "household cleaning products," whereas "a consumer" is singular, so there's no danger of the pronoun's being construed as referring to it.

Best,

How come them and they is not confusing with "hazardous substances"

Ashley@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 199; Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 6:06 amFollowed by: 121 members; Location: Cambridge, MA; Thanked: 192 times; GMAT Score:780

by Ashley@VeritasPrep » Thu Jun 30, 2011 6:45 am

Please see these two threads and my posts in them -- you've had some company with that question

These should answer it, I think.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/antecedent-p ... 84640.html
https://www.beatthegmat.com/pronoun-ambi ... 85308.html

Ashley Newman-Owens
GMAT Instructor
Veritas Prep

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Sanjay2706: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 116; Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 7:52 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 2 times

by Sanjay2706 » Fri Jul 01, 2011 1:17 am

Yes I think D is right.
Good explanation too.
Thanks

rishijhawar: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 138; Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:24 pm; Thanked: 1 times

by rishijhawar » Sun Jul 10, 2011 10:34 am

Hi, is 'idiom' a problem in A? to be instead of as?

tisrar02: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 130; Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 8:13 amFollowed by: 4 members; Location: Toronto, Ontario; Thanked: 16 times; GMAT Score:650

by tisrar02 » Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:28 pm

The official idiom is "To think of X AS Y. So yes, A does have an idiomatic issue.

rishijhawar wrote:Hi, is 'idiom' a problem in A? to be instead of as?

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