Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts - reason - The Beat The GMAT Forum

Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts - reason

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mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Fri Oct 15, 2010 4:34 am

Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits caused by the desire to be as thin as possible.

A) Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits caused by the desire to be as thin as possible.
B) Good eating habits sometimes fail to be maintained by young female ballet dancers and gymnasts caused by desiring to be as thin as possible.
C) Because they desire to be as thin as possible, good eating habits are sometimes not maintained by young female ballet dancers and gymnasts.
D) Because they desire to be as thin as possible, young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits.
E) Young female dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits because they desire to be as thin as possible.

Sorce :The solution to this question was provided by kaplan .The explanation given was regarding misplaced modifiers.

Last edited by mundasingh123 on Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Fri Oct 15, 2010 4:34 am

saurabhmahajan: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 250; Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2010 2:21 am; Thanked: 10 times

by saurabhmahajan » Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:03 am

IMO: E

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:43 am

mundasingh123 wrote:Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits caused by the desire to be as thin as possible.

A) Young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits caused by the desire to be as thin as possible.
B) Good eating habits sometimes fail to be maintained by young female ballet dancers and gymnasts caused by desiring to be as thin as possible.
C) Because they desire to be as thin as possible, good eating habits are sometimes not maintained by young female ballet dancers and gymnasts.
D) Because they desire to be as thin as possible, young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits.
E) Young female dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits because they desire to be as thin as possible.

Sorce :Kaplan

Quickest approach:

A incorrectly implies that good eating habits are caused by the desire to be thin as possible. Eliminate A.

B incorrectly implies that young female ballet dancers and gymnasts are caused by desiring to be as thin as possible. Eliminate B.

In C, they incorrectly refers to good eating habits. Eliminate C.

E omits the word ballet, changing the intended meaning of the sentence. The original sentence discusses young female ballet dancers, not all young female dancers. Eliminate E.

The correct answer is D.

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niksworth: Legendary Member; Posts: 520; Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:44 amFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 70 times

by niksworth » Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:45 am

IMO E.

A, B and C can be easily ruled out. The real fight is between D and E.

Although I don't see any grammatical mistakes in D, I like the construction of E more as it brings out the causation better.

I must say that I don't think this is a GMAT type question. Generally the wrong answers in GMAC questions are wrong for much more obvious reasons.

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niksworth: Legendary Member; Posts: 520; Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:44 amFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 70 times

by niksworth » Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:48 am

Oh! I overlooked that the word ballet is missing in E. Shoot!

If that is really missing and not a typo, then E goes out of the window; D should be right. Pl confirm.

However, that makes the question even more strange; GMAC never creates incorrect answer choices on the basis of left out words.

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mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:49 am

Thought i would mention the OA after a few ppl came in with the answers.Had the OA been E, i would not have posted the SC here.
IT s D and this was what knocked me out.

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mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:51 am

@GMATGURUNY
i didnt catch the "missing ballet " in E.I dont think there are any other errors in E.Mitch, i just wish to confirm that "they" in E refers to a proper antecedent,the subject in the preceding clause.
In D, Is it okay to use a pronoun like "they".Isnt it a case of missing antecedent.
Can a pronoun refer to an antecedent that follows the pronoun in all those cases where there is only one noun in the sentence.

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:57 am

niksworth wrote:IMO E.

A, B and C can be easily ruled out. The real fight is between D and E.

Although I don't see any grammatical mistakes in D, I like the construction of E more as it brings out the causation better.

I must say that I don't think this is a GMAT type question. Generally the wrong answers in GMAC questions are wrong for much more obvious reasons.

Actually, E makes the causation less clear. A more straightforward example:

John fails to run because he is hungry.

Is John failing because he is hungry, or is running because he is hungry the action that John is failing to do? The placement of the adverbial phrase because he is hungry makes the meaning unclear.

In the SC above, D places the modifier because they desire to be as thin as possible closer to the verb fail, so the meaning is clearer: because they desire to be as thin as possible, young ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail.

In E, it could be argued that the pronoun they could refer to the dancers and gymnasts or to the good eating habits. Since D avoids this ambiguity, D is better.

Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

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mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:03 am

GMATGuruNY wrote:
niksworth wrote:IMO E.

A, B and C can be easily ruled out. The real fight is between D and E.

Although I don't see any grammatical mistakes in D, I like the construction of E more as it brings out the causation better.

I must say that I don't think this is a GMAT type question. Generally the wrong answers in GMAC questions are wrong for much more obvious reasons.
Actually, E makes the causation less clear. A more straightforward example:

John fails to run because he is hungry.

Is John failing because he is hungry, or is running because he is hungry the action that John is failing to do? The placement of the adverbial phrase because he is hungry makes the meaning unclear.

In the SC above, D places the modifier because they desire to be as thin as possible closer to the verb fail, so the meaning is clearer: the dancers and gymnasts are failing because they desire to be as thin as possible.

But in the SC i posted above, the :because clause" is not placed next to verb fail in either case.
In E,"to maintain good habits" is between the because clause and verb fail
In D too the because clause is placed away.Mitch please explain

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:12 am

mundasingh123 wrote:
GMATGuruNY wrote:
niksworth wrote:IMO E.

A, B and C can be easily ruled out. The real fight is between D and E.

Although I don't see any grammatical mistakes in D, I like the construction of E more as it brings out the causation better.

I must say that I don't think this is a GMAT type question. Generally the wrong answers in GMAC questions are wrong for much more obvious reasons.
Actually, E makes the causation less clear. A more straightforward example:

John fails to run because he is hungry.

Is John failing because he is hungry, or is running because he is hungry the action that John is failing to do? The placement of the adverbial phrase because he is hungry makes the meaning unclear.

In the SC above, D places the modifier because they desire to be as thin as possible closer to the verb fail, so the meaning is clearer: the dancers and gymnasts are failing because they desire to be as thin as possible.
But in the SC i posted above, the :because clause" is not placed next to verb fail in either case.
In E,"to maintain good habits" is between the because clause and verb fail
In D too the because clause is placed away.Mitch please explain

Here's D:

Because they desire to be as thin as possible, young female ballet dancers and gymnasts sometimes fail to maintain good eating habits.

Because they desire to be as thin as possible is functioning as an adverb, so it cannot be modifying the nouns dancers and gymnasts. The closest verb is fail. Thus in D, the adverbial clause because they desire to be as thin as possible is modifying the verb fail.

In E, because they desire to be as thin as possible is closer to the verb maintain, so the meaning becomes less clear.

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niksworth: Legendary Member; Posts: 520; Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:44 amFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 70 times

by niksworth » Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:27 am

Right. Makes sense. Thanks Mitch. That was invaluable.

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mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:33 am

Mitch , But "maintain" is inside the prepositional phrase, "to maintain" .Do we still consider "maintain" a verb.I thought that verbs in prepositional phrases are not considered verbs.

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niksworth: Legendary Member; Posts: 520; Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 10:44 amFollowed by: 6 members; Thanked: 70 times

by niksworth » Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:39 am

mundasingh123 wrote:Mitch , But "maintain" is inside the prepositional phrase .Do we still consider "maintain" a verb.I thought that verbs in prepositional phrases are not considered verbs.

I don't think that it is a prepositional phrase. I think it is an infinitive.

E.g. I love to run.

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by GMATGuruNY » Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:48 am

niksworth wrote:
mundasingh123 wrote:Mitch , But "maintain" is inside the prepositional phrase .Do we still consider "maintain" a verb.I thought that verbs in prepositional phrases are not considered verbs.
I don't think that it is a prepositional phrase. I think it is an infinitive.

E.g. I love to run.

Exactly! To maintain is not a preposition + noun construction but the infinitive form of the verb maintain. Technically, to maintain is a verb functioning as the direct object of the verb fail. What do dancers and gymnasts fail to do? They fail to maintain.

When a verb functions as a noun, it can still be modified by an adverb:

Running quickly is hard work.

In the example above, running is a gerund (a verb functioning as a noun). Quickly is an adverb modifying the verb/noun running.

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mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:50 am

niksworth wrote:
mundasingh123 wrote:Mitch , But "maintain" is inside the prepositional phrase .Do we still consider "maintain" a verb.I thought that verbs in prepositional phrases are not considered verbs.
I don't think that it is a prepositional phrase. I think it is an infinitive.

E.g. I love to run.

Sorries i should have mentioned "infinitive " instead of preposition.
Ok, then "to maintain" is verb modifier and it modifies fail
So in this case , can another "because" clause modify "maintain" in the verb modifier (to maintain).
My doubt still remains the same.

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