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Chrysler Corporation

by GmatKiss » Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:39 am
In the 1950s, when the Chrysler Corporation sponsored a live television show about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, it forbade the actors to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because it did not want to plug the competition.

(A) it forbade the actors to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because it
(B) they forbade the actors from mentioning Lincoln or the Ford Theater because they
(C) it was forbidden to mention Lincoln or the Ford Theater as they
(D) the actors were forbidden to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because they
(E) the actors were forbidden from mentioning Lincoln or the Ford Theater, since they
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by gmatblood » Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:40 am
IMO :E
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by sl750 » Sat Oct 08, 2011 3:47 am
Chrysler Corp is a collective noun, we have to use the singular pronoun it and not they

IMO A
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by aspirant2011 » Sat Oct 08, 2011 7:28 am
GmatKiss wrote:In the 1950s, when the Chrysler Corporation sponsored a live television show about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, it forbade the actors to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because it did not want to plug the competition.

(A) it forbade the actors to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because it
(B) they forbade the actors from mentioning Lincoln or the Ford Theater because they
(C) it was forbidden to mention Lincoln or the Ford Theater as they
(D) the actors were forbidden to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because they
(E) the actors were forbidden from mentioning Lincoln or the Ford Theater, since they
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by chetansharma » Sun Oct 09, 2011 5:41 am
GmatKiss wrote:In the 1950s, when the Chrysler Corporation sponsored a live television show about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, it forbade the actors to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because it did not want to plug the competition.

(A) it forbade the actors to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because it
(B) they forbade the actors from mentioning Lincoln or the Ford Theater because they
(C) it was forbidden to mention Lincoln or the Ford Theater as they
(D) the actors were forbidden to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because they
(E) the actors were forbidden from mentioning Lincoln or the Ford Theater, since they
IMO the answer is A as all other options end with 'they'.

Regards,
Chetan
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by Jim@Grockit » Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:15 am
For both native and non-native speakers of English, words with similar meanings but different idioms can be real challenges. "Forbid to" and "prohibit from" are used in similar contexts, and so their idioms get mixed up. Luckily there are other errors in this sentence.
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by atuldafria » Sun Oct 09, 2011 12:46 pm
whether "it" can also refer to Television show?
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by mukgera » Sun Oct 09, 2011 5:56 pm
IMO A
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by aspirant2011 » Sun Oct 09, 2011 5:58 pm
atuldafria wrote:whether "it" can also refer to Television show?
Nopes IT refers to the subject of previous clause,over here Christopher corporation
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by jaguar123 » Mon Oct 10, 2011 4:47 am
IT has 2 antecedents - corporation and tv.. in choice A
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by parul9 » Mon Oct 10, 2011 5:41 am
IMO A.
What's the OA?
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by coderversion1 » Mon Oct 10, 2011 6:57 am
In the 1950s, when the Chrysler Corporation sponsored a live television show about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, it forbade the actors to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because it did not want to plug the competition.

Let's choose which of the GMAT errors the sentence has:
1. Rhetorical Construction
2. Parallelism
3. Diction
4. Verb Form
5. Agreement
6. Grammatical Construction
7. Logical Predication
8. Idiom

NO ERRORS

Seems error free except that 'it' does not refer clearly to Chrysler Corporation.

What is being tested?
AGREEMENT

It important to know who forbade mention of Lincoln or Ford? It was Chrysler Corporation not Abraham Lincoln and Chrysler Corporation is a singular collective noun just as company, organization, department etc are.
Also, who did not want to plug competition? Chrysler Corporation, not Actors. Hence singular pronoun 'It' be used.

Let's analyze each answer choice:

(A) it forbade the actors to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because it CORRECT - 'it' agrees with singular antecedent Chrysler Corporation.
(B) they forbade the actors from mentioning Lincoln or the Ford Theater because they - INCORRECT They cannot be used for Chrysler Corp.
(C) it was forbidden to mention Lincoln or the Ford Theater as they - INCORRECT They here should refer to Chrysler Corporation (otherwise it doesn't make sense if it refers to actors. Actors don't want to plug competition is illogical.) and they 'a plural pronoun' cannot refer to singular antecedent 'Chrysler Corp.'
(D) the actors were forbidden to mention Lincoln's name or the name of the Ford Theater because they -INCORRECT Exact same reason as above
(E) the actors were forbidden from mentioning Lincoln or the Ford Theater, since they - INCORRECT This choice was promising but again 'they' for Chrysler is worse than 'it' somewhat not having a clear antecedent in choice A.


Takeaway:
1. PRONOUN AGREEMENT IS VERY HIGH PRIORITY.

IMO A
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by boltu_gmat » Mon Oct 10, 2011 9:06 am
A . all other choices has "they" - which is wrong usage
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by GmatKiss » Mon Oct 10, 2011 9:58 am
OA is A
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:51 am
Great discussion, everyone - and coderversion1 nailed it so congratulations there!

I had to chime in first because the fine people at Chrysler put food on my table the whole time I was growing up (and I've owned a few of their cars and loved each of them), but mainly because this is a phenomenal example of how you should approach idioms on the GMAT.

Humans as a species are horrible with idioms - there are too many of them to know and often times correct idioms don't sound great. And the GMAT knows that, and that's why idioms can **appear** without actually being what you're tested on. This is a pronoun question through and through, but when I read the original sentence I was ready to eliminate it because that idiom sounds awful. However, after going through B-E and realizing that each of them was fatally flawed with the pronoun "they" or "their", A was the only plausible answer even though after 30 years of speaking English I'd never have picked that idiom.

Idioms are great traps when you're writing an SC question because people will lose track of the things they know to be important (pronouns, verb tenses, modifiers, etc.) and go off chasing idioms. They're "weapons of mass distraction" for GMAT takers, so that's why you'll continue to see them on the test. But they're not what's actually being tested. This is a pronoun question that people will miss because they hate the idiom. So take care to prioritize idioms last and focus on those things you can control first.
Brian Galvin
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