1000 SC Dead chickens

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1000 SC Dead chickens

by GmatKiss » Mon Sep 19, 2011 4:55 am
According to United States Air Force officials, a cannon shooting dead chickens at airplanes has proved helpful to demonstrate what kind of damage can result when jets fly into a flock of large birds.

(A) shooting dead chickens at airplanes has proved helpful to demonstrate
(B) shooting dead chickens at airplanes has proved itself helpful as a demonstration of
(C) shooting dead chickens at airplanes proves itself helpful as demonstrating
(D) that shoots dead chickens at airplanes proves itself helpful to demonstrate
(E) that shoots dead chickens at airplanes has proved helpful in demonstrating

OA in sometime!
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by sunilrawat » Mon Sep 19, 2011 5:11 am
Is it E?
My approach, we are talking about a general type of canon, so A, B and C are out. The observation is based on a completed event. So D is out.

OA please.

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by VivianKerr » Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:48 am
IMO: E

It's the CANNON that is helpful in determining what kind of damage can result, since a CANNON is a tool, not SHOOTING DEAD CHICKENS, so A, B, and C are out.

Between D and E, "proves itself helpful" is awkward. Also, the correct idiom here is "helpful IN demonstrating." The reason this idiom is correct in this case (and not the infinitive) is because "demonstrating what kind of damage" is the AREA in which the cannon is helpful. We'd use to the infinitive, "helpful TO demonstrate" if the action after demonstrate was something that we USED the cannon to do.

The cannon was helpful in demonstrating what kind of damage can result.

The cannon was helpful to demonstrate the force of the military.
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by sungoal » Mon Sep 19, 2011 8:53 am
isn't "shooting dead chickens" modifying cannon?

could you explain why A is wrong?

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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:36 pm
sungoal wrote:isn't "shooting dead chickens" modifying cannon?

could you explain why A is wrong?
I posted a response here:

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by gmatblood » Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:50 am
Thanks Mitch

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