why "while willing" is wrong in Q 68, OG11

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by goelmohit2002 » Sat Jul 04, 2009 5:21 am
mittalashwani13 wrote:
OK...Let's remove some extra stuff ... and Let me ask you two questions ...
Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have reduced sickness, sleeping on the job, and fatigue among shift workers while raising production efficiency in various industries.
---> What is the subject of this sentence? And What else can be thought as a subject?

>> IMO here the subject is "shift work equations".
Sorry I could not get what you meant to say in what else can be thought as subject.

Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills [THIS IS AN INCORRECT SENTENCE...PRESENTED ONLY FOR DISCUSSION]

Same question goes here ...
---> What is the subject of this sentence? And What else can be thought as a subject?

>> IMO here the subject is "Many people". Sorry I could not get what you meant to say in what else can be thought as subject.

Please tell what I am missing here.

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by mittalashwani13 » Sat Jul 04, 2009 6:23 pm
goelmohit2002 wrote:
mittalashwani13 wrote:
OK...Let's remove some extra stuff ... and Let me ask you two questions ...
Recently implemented "shift-work equations" based on studies of the human sleep cycle have reduced sickness, sleeping on the job, and fatigue among shift workers while raising production efficiency in various industries.
---> What is the subject of this sentence? And What else can be thought as a subject?

>> IMO here the subject is "shift work equations".
Sorry I could not get what you meant to say in what else can be thought as subject.

Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills [THIS IS AN INCORRECT SENTENCE...PRESENTED ONLY FOR DISCUSSION]

Same question goes here ...
---> What is the subject of this sentence? And What else can be thought as a subject?

>> IMO here the subject is "Many people". Sorry I could not get what you meant to say in what else can be thought as subject.

Please tell what I am missing here.
Ok... here is the thing...

I prefer having food while watching TV... Is it correct? Yes it is ...

and at the same time, the following sentence is correct...

I prefer having food while I watch TV ...

In both the sentences, subject is clear (i.e. I) so it can be omitted from the subordinate clause ...as it umambiguously refers to subject "I"

in both the sentences under discussion, in the following, subject can be thought as "Many people" as well as "Analytical skills"
Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills [THIS IS AN INCORRECT SENTENCE...PRESENTED ONLY FOR DISCUSSION]

But in the other sentence "Shift-work equations" is the ONLY subject ... so we can omit the same in the subordinate clause ...


IN ANY CASE, GMAT CAN NOT PRESENT BOTH THE OPTIONS IN THE ANSWER CHOICE..because BOTH are grammatically correct ... it is just the matter of conciseness!

Hope this helps...

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by goelmohit2002 » Sun Jul 05, 2009 9:48 am
Hi Ashwani,

Thanks.

I may sound a bit illogical but just to clarify.....as per the above discussion:

Sentence #1
=============
Many people have a disinclination to recognize the weakness of their analytical skills while willing to admit their lack of computer skills or other technical skills

Here subject can be either of the following:
a) People
b) Analytical skills (But logically skills cannot admit )

Sentence#2
================
I prefer having food while watching TV.

Here subject can be only I.
But why the subject can't be food.

Please note that in sentence#1 IMO "Analytical skills" is object and in #2, food is the object.

Can you please help in clearing this doubt.

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by mittalashwani13 » Sun Jul 05, 2009 1:12 pm
goelmohit2002 wrote: This looks logical...but it looks like there is something more to it....Please see the following question from OG-10, Q233. Here OA is "C". But the sentence following the "while" does not have subject in the same. Is there some exception to the rule that you mentioned....
It seems that you are RIGHT in this reasoning ... Pls do let me know if you find something more about this rule ... Thanks!

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by tanviet » Mon Jul 06, 2009 3:48 am
"while willing" is correct in both questions because we can cut off the subject which can be understood clearly from the sentence.