Olympic Games

[BellTheGMAT]

Hi,
Can anyone explain the below SC -

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.
(A) world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month
(B) world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival's month
(C) world when they proclaimed a sacred truce for the festival month
(D) world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival
(E) world by proclamation of a sacred truce that was for the month of the festival

Anyone can explain when to use " , + ing" form and when not to....

OA is D, but I have seen many examples where the format like option B are answer.... Detailed explanation with few examples would be helpful....

Thanks in advance.

[shovan85]

This is one of the Most Debatable Sentence Correction problems you can see in GMAT forum.

The important thing to be noted here is the logic. Logically, Truce is proclaimed by human beings not by the Olympic Games. So the options those point that the Games proclaim truce are to be discarded first.

B,C, and E are discarded as these options WRONGLY say Games proclaimed Truce.

Between A and D, I have read in some forums that "in that" is used to show a reason (I am not sure but we have something else to discard A ).

As both A and D are Grammatically OK we need to think about Concise and Clarity of the sentences.

Concise: In D usage of "FOR" is economical to usage of "IN THAT".

Clarity: Generally we say "Month of May" not "May's Month". Similarly D usages "month of the festival", which is more clear to "festival's month " that is used in A.

So D is the answer.

[gmat_perfect]

Hi,
Can anyone explain the below SC -

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month.
(A) world in that a sacred truce was proclaimed during the festival's month
(B) world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival's month
(C) world when they proclaimed a sacred truce for the festival month
(D) world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival
(E) world by proclamation of a sacred truce that was for the month of the festival

Anyone can explain when to use " , + ing" form and when not to....

OA is D, but I have seen many examples where the format like option B are answer.... Detailed explanation with few examples would be helpful....

Thanks in advance.

The issues with this sentence:

1. When we make possessive of inanimate object, we should follow the following rule:

X of Y, when both X and Y are inanimate objects.

Example:

We say:

Karim's book..........
John's house...........
Boys' school..............

We don't say:

Table's legs.........
Books pages.........

Rather we say:

Legs of the table............
Pages of the book.............

SO, "festival's month" should be replaced by "month of festival".
-> This kills A and B.

2. COMMA + Verbing:

--COMMA + VERBING modifies the clause before COMMA, and a clause MUST have a subject and a verb. The VERBING retains the subject of the clause before COMMA.

Example:
The doctor helped the poor, giving advices and medicine.

-> The doctor gave the advice.

Now, think about the option B:

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world, proclaiming a sacred truce during the festival's month

--> it means that "the proclamation has been done by GAMES". Can the game announce? NO. It is the organizers of the game who can do this. So, B is changing the intended meaning of the sentence.

3. The pronoun MUST have clear antecedent:

Think about "they" in the option C. Does it have a clear reference? There are two plural nouns preceding "they".

4. by + verbing/NOUN form of verb:

"By + Verbing/NOUN form of the verb" retains the subject of the preceding clause.

Example:

They have rejected the proposal by saying NO.

--> They have done the task of saying NO.

The doctor helped the poor by free prescriptions.

--> Free prescription has been done by the doctor.

==> The same rule can be applied in case of E, and the option E means that the proclamation has been done by GAME. It changes the meaning of the sentence.

The remaining option D is the best option, which is free from errors.

Advanced:

For can be used as "because".

Because + clause is correct and "for+clause" is also correct.

Example:

They could not come to office, for they were ill.

Thanks.

[saurabh_maths]

What a gr8 explanation gmat_perfect. Thanks! !!!