1000 SC Q-651

[akg_gmat]

Since the 1930’s aircraft manufacturers have tried to build airplanes with frictionless wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly that the air passing over them would not become turbulent.

(A) wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly
(B) wings, wings so smooth and so perfectly shaped
(C) wings that are shaped so smooth and perfect
(D) wings, shaped in such a smooth and perfect manner
(E) wings, wings having been shaped smoothly and perfectly so


Official Answer: B

I was stuck between A and D, but neither is the OA....
Plz explain....

[QTrani]

Hey,

Can someone please point me to where these 1000 SC bank reside on the forum? Or can someone please forward them to me at [email protected]
THanks a ton.
Regards,
Rani

[Swami0104]

Ans C.

(B) wings, wings so smooth and so perfectly shaped
-- wings refer to what? (Same like A)
(D) wings, shaped in such a smooth and perfect manner
-- wordy
(E) wings, wings having been shaped smoothly and perfectly so
-- wordy

[wonder]

Since the 1930’s aircraft manufacturers have tried to build airplanes with frictionless wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly that the air passing over them would not become turbulent.

(A) wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly
(B) wings, wings so smooth and so perfectly shaped
(C) wings that are shaped so smooth and perfect
(D) wings, shaped in such a smooth and perfect manner
(E) wings, wings having been shaped smoothly and perfectly so

I was stuck between A and D, but neither is the OA....
Plz explain....

should be B...we need to find the referent for them in the last line. And B does that fine.

A--them is ambiguous as it can refer to airplanes or the wings
B--after the comma, the use of 'wings' again makes it clear what we are talking about (i.e air passing over what would not become turbulent
C--is wrong because of the usage 'wings that are shaped so smooth and perfect'..... wings can be shaped smoothly or perfectly or wings can be smooth or perfect. but i dont think they can be shaped smooth / perfect
D--again i think ambiguous 'them'
E--....having been.....so that.... aah pretty wordy

hope it helps!!

[vivek.kapoor83]

Agree with Wonder....It should be B.
OA ?

[stop@800]

B is the answer

A: wings are not shaped smoothly rather they are smooth
C: So smooth and prefect
D: Shaped in such a [Such is incorrectly used]
E: Having been

[nervesofsteel]

B for me too...

So smooth and So perfectly shaped... parallelism...

[ramauddib]

I think its B -
The key here seems to be to undersand the precise meaning of the sentence. The sentence intends to convey that the wings are smooth (hence zero friction), and have been shaped to perfectly. So, the two modifiers should act independently - Smooth modifying the wings, Perfectly modifying the verb Shaped-

o wings, shaped so smoothly and perfectly - the adverbs modify the verb shaped, which is not what the sentence intends to convey.
o wings, wings so smooth and so perfectly shaped - even if the repetition of wings is probably redundant, its the best choice/least wordy
o wings that are shaped so smooth and perfect - perfect modifies the wrong part of the sentence
o wings, shaped in such a smooth and perfect manner - wordy
o wings, wings having been shaped smoothly and perfectly so - wordy

[sana.noor]

how can wings be shaped smoothly? wings can be shaped perfectly but they cant be shaped smoothly,...so B is the right choice that wings so smooth and so perfectly shaped.