Idiom - to dedicate

[Carlo75]

George Washington dedicated his life to the economic strengthening of the south with improvement of soil and diversification of corps.

A. the economic strengthening of the south with improvement of soil and diversification of corps.
B. strengthening the economy in the south with soil improvement and diversification of corps.
C. the strengthening the economy of the south through soil improvement and crop diversification.
D. the strengthening of the economy of the south through improving soil and crop diversifying
E. the economic strengthening in the south with improving soil and diversifying corp.

Does anyone know whether the correct idiom is DEDICATE TO + ING FORM ? in this case the corret answer is B.

[vittalgmat]

I dont think B is the answer.
"of the south" and "in the south", I think, are different in meaning.
I am not sure if this is right but here is what I thought:

1. Of the south implies a geographical area which is labelled as south;
2. In the south means a geographic area south of some point....


Any thoughts??

rgds
-Vittal

[VP_Jim]

I think it should be C - EXCEPT that it needs to have an "of" between "strengthening" and "the economy". This must be a typo.

B is definitely not correct, as it does need to say "of the south", not "in the south", for the reasons already discussed.

[netigen]

B is also not parallel - soil improvement and diversification of corps

it should read - soil improvement and crop diversification.

[ousek]

I think it should be C - EXCEPT that it needs to have an "of" between "strengthening" and "the economy". This must be a typo.

This is a question of Practice Test 2 of GMAT Prep.

I confirm that there is no "of" between "strengthening" and "the economy".

Actually, the official answer is C. Hence, the official correct sentence is:
GWC dedicated his life to strengthening the economy of the South through soil improvement and crop diversification.
:arrow: "the" is missing.

As far as I am concerned, I chose D because of the missing "the". Do anyone of your could explain why D doesn't fit, and why C can miss "the"?

[ousek]

The idiom associated to DEDICATE is:

to dedicate oneself/one's life to somebody/something

[hemanth28]

I think it should be C - EXCEPT that it needs to have an "of" between "strengthening" and "the economy". This must be a typo.

This is a question of Practice Test 2 of GMAT Prep.

I confirm that there is no "of" between "strengthening" and "the economy".

Actually, the official answer is C. Hence, the official correct sentence is:
GWC dedicated his life to strengthening the economy of the South through soil improvement and crop diversification.
:arrow: "the" is missing.

As far as I am concerned, I chose D because of the missing "the". Do anyone of your could explain why D doesn't fit, and why C can miss "the"?

D can be eliminated because of lack of parallelism between "improving soil and crop diversifying" and also the sentence looks incomplete with these phrases.

If 'the' is present then the sentence would mean " Washington dedicated his life to strengthen the economy of only south and not any other region "

However the right meaning of the sentence is "Washington dedicated his life to strengthen the economy of south through something." He might have dedicated in developing other economies through some other ways.

--Correct me if i am wrong

[gmatshot]

I agree C

I think D is not correct because improving soil and crop diversifying are not parallel

[perfectstranger]

What's wrong with A?

[gmat_dest]

Object of preposition is noun. So like Jim, I feel that C has a typo.
to strengthening... does not look correct.