Although Ice Particles In The Upper Atmosphere Benefit...

[apoorva_srivastva]

Although ice particles in the upper atmosphere benefit Earth in that they reflect and absorb solar radiation, acting as a global thermostat and thus keeping Earth from either burning up or freezing over, they also accelerate the destruction of the ozone layer by reacting with chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's).
A. acting as a global thermostat and thus keeping Earth from either burning up or freezing over, they also accelerate
B. acting as a global thermostat and thus keeping Earth either from burning up or freezing over, while also accelerating
C. act as a global thermostat and thus keep Earth from either burning up or freezing over, while also accelerating
D. they act as a global thermostat that thus keeps Earth either from burning up or freezing over, even though it also accelerates
E. they act as a global thermostat to thus keep Earth from either burning up or freezing over, but they also accelerate

Source: GMAT PREP 1;q-17

1.) I chose answer as E but the OA is A...is the use of "But" - a conjunction or a co-ordinator and "Although" - a subordinator in the same senctence , correct?

2.) When can we drop "THAT" OR "WHOM" from the sentences.......MSC guide(pg. no.106,chapter - modifiers) says one can drop "THAT " or "WHOM", when the modified noun is the object of the modifying clause.....I dint understand one bit of rule!!!!

The example quoted is :
"The movie THAT we watched yesterday was scary"....i used yesterday instead of friday
"The movie we watched yesterday was sacry"!!!

FOR ME.. THE RULE SOUNDS SCARY....LOL

Please suggest are the rules applicable to the following sentences:


1.) Few and short were the prayers (THAT) we said.
2.) The book (THAT) I read is a famous work of XYZ.
3.) I think (THAT) we should try.

SO MY QUESTION IS HOW DO I KNOW(THAT) IT IS TIME TO DROP "THAT" !!!

Kindly help...thanks in advance

[sanyalpritish]

Well I also did not get it right in the first go, but the way you are looking at it is probably complicated the below explaination should help,

1. if you notice B,C,D the either ...or //ism is wrong
2. The usage of Although is being missed here, in BCDE all the option it is wrong

B: Although ..while
C: same as B
D: Although, even though
E: Although, but

Right usage is Although X,Y Hence only A is the option left I was totally stumped as well

[anubhav.srivastava]

A. Correct Usage
B. error 1 - either-or formation is not parallel; error 2 - although...while formation is incorrect
C. error 1 - verb act does not modify the clause preceding it; error 2 - although...while formation is incorrect
D. error 1 - after the comma following the first clause, it is expected that the subsequent clause should express contradiction of thought (as the sentence begins with Although) - incorrect usage of they here; error 2 - although...even though formation is incorrect
E. error 1 - same as D; error 2 - but they is redundant and not required is the sentence begins with Although

[apoorva_srivastva]

Hii Ron+Stacey+Ben+OMS....

Could you please shed light on my doubts....!!!

1.) I chose answer as E but the OA is A...is the use of "But" - a conjunction or a co-ordinator and "Although" - a subordinator in the same senctence , correct?

2.) When can we drop "THAT" OR "WHOM" from the sentences.......MSC guide(pg. no.106,chapter - modifiers) says one can drop "THAT " or "WHOM", when the modified noun is the object of the modifying clause.....I dint understand one bit of rule!!!!

The example quoted is :
"The movie THAT we watched yesterday was scary"....i used yesterday instead of friday
"The movie we watched yesterday was sacry"!!!

FOR ME.. THE RULE SOUNDS SCARY....LOL

Please suggest are the rules applicable to the following sentences:


1.) Few and short were the prayers (THAT) we said.
2.) The book (THAT) I read is a famous work of XYZ.
3.) I think (THAT) we should try.

SO MY QUESTION IS HOW DO I KNOW(THAT) IT IS TIME TO DROP "THAT" !!!

Kindly help...thanks in advance

[RonPurewal]

Although ice particles in the upper atmosphere benefit Earth in that they reflect and absorb solar radiation, acting as a global thermostat and thus keeping Earth from either burning up or freezing over, they also accelerate the destruction of the ozone layer by reacting with chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's).
A. acting as a global thermostat and thus keeping Earth from either burning up or freezing over, they also accelerate
B. acting as a global thermostat and thus keeping Earth either from burning up or freezing over, while also accelerating
C. act as a global thermostat and thus keep Earth from either burning up or freezing over, while also accelerating
D. they act as a global thermostat that thus keeps Earth either from burning up or freezing over, even though it also accelerates
E. they act as a global thermostat to thus keep Earth from either burning up or freezing over, but they also accelerate

Source: GMAT PREP 1;q-17

1.) I chose answer as E but the OA is A...is the use of "But" - a conjunction or a co-ordinator and "Although" - a subordinator in the same senctence , correct?

no, you wouldn't want to include both of these transition words in the same sentence.

it's possible to construct a sentence in which both of these would make sense, but such a sentence would just be horribly wordy and awkward; you would do well to split it up into two sentences (or, at least, two independent clauses separated by a semicolon).
for instance:
Although Team X had trailed by 20 points at halftime, they managed to even the score, but they lost the game in the final seconds. --> this sentence makes sense, but it's just horrible. (it's the sort of thing that one would speak out loud, but not write in formal writing.)
a better rewrite:
Although Team X had trailed by 20 points at halftime, they managed to even the score; nevertheless, they lost the game in the final seconds.

choice (e) is also wrong because it makes no sense in context. specifically, the first independent clause of (e) would be
Although ice particles in the upper atmosphere benefit Earth in that they reflect and absorb solar radiation, they act as a global thermostat to thus keep Earth from either burning up or freezing over
these are not contrasting statements, so "although" is illogical in this context.

by contrast, the COMMA -ING modifier in choice (a) is absolutely perfect in this case, since the "global thermostat" clause is an adverbial modifier that expounds on the process described in the first clause.

2.) When can we drop "THAT" OR "WHOM" from the sentences.......MSC guide(pg. no.106,chapter - modifiers) says one can drop "THAT " or "WHOM", when the modified noun is the object of the modifying clause.....I dint understand one bit of rule!!!!

this question seems to be unrelated to this GMATPREP problem. if this is a random qusetion about something in the strategy guides, then please post it in the Verbal Strategy Guides section; thanks.

remember, the forum rules stipulate that different topics require different posts (especially topics that belong in altogether different folders).

Hii Ron+Stacey+Ben+OMS....

Could you please shed light on my doubts....!!!

for your information - we always answer posts in chronological order - oldest first - so, if you "bump" a thread by adding an extra post like this one, you're actually moving it to last place in the queue.

[428lmy]

RON, may i ask you a question, thanks in advance.

As you have said:' the COMMA -ING modifier in choice (a) is absolutely perfect in this case, since the "global thermostat" clause is an adverbial modifier that expounds on the process described in the first clause.'

however, i wonder whether the COMMA -ING modifier in choice (a) can serve as an adjectival modifier which can be used to modify the preceding noun "solar radiation".
If it is the case, the modifier would have two functions disallowed by gmat which requires that the modifier serve only one purpose.
If it is not, how can we tell whether the the COMMA -ING modifier/-ed modifier is an adverbial modifier or an adjectival modifier, especially when there is a noun preceding the the COMMA -ING/-ed modifier which the modifier can grammatically modify

Can you help elaborate, thanks again.

[RonPurewal]

RON, may i ask you a question, thanks in advance.

As you have said:' the COMMA -ING modifier in choice (a) is absolutely perfect in this case, since the "global thermostat" clause is an adverbial modifier that expounds on the process described in the first clause.'

however, i wonder whether the COMMA -ING modifier in choice (a) can serve as an adjectival modifier which can be used to modify the preceding noun "solar radiation".
If it is the case, the modifier would have two functions disallowed by gmat which requires that the modifier serve only one purpose.
If it is not, how can we tell whether the the COMMA -ING modifier/-ed modifier is an adverbial modifier or an adjectival modifier, especially when there is a noun preceding the the COMMA -ING/-ed modifier which the modifier can grammatically modify

Can you help elaborate, thanks again.

Two things.

1) you're falling into another bad habit again: do NOT, EVER, question the official answers to official problems. these problems are created by GMAC; therefore, anything indicated as a correct answer is automatically correct. if you question the correct answers, you are doing nothing but wasting your time.
When you encounter a problem that surprises you, the correct response is not, "are you sure this is not wrong?" Instead, the correct response is, "wow, I didn't know that; let me figure out the new rule based on this problem."

2) COMMA -ING modifiers are always adverbial. They are not allowed to function as adjective style modifiers.
for more on these types of modifiers, see here:
post30766.html#p30766

[mcmebk]

Hi Ron

I am not able to determine what "acting as....and thus keeping..." is modifying.

It may not matter here since the subject of either the preceeding clause "ice particles" or the following clause "they" are both logical here, but consdier this example:

Although the thief run away immediately, holding my luggage, I chased and caught him.

Does the thief hold my luggage or I am holding the luggage? Or in structure, the subject of these two clauses always have to be the same as in the correct answer in this question?

Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron

I am not able to determine what "acting as....and thus keeping..." is modifying.

It may not matter here since the subject of either the preceeding clause "ice particles" or the following clause "they" are both logical here, but consdier this example:

Although the thief run away immediately, holding my luggage, I chased and caught him.

Does the thief hold my luggage or I am holding the luggage? Or in structure, the subject of these two clauses always have to be the same as in the correct answer in this question?

Thanks.

In that situation, the default is to ascribe the modifier to the stuff that comes before it.

Also, don't underestimate the role of common sense. If a situation is "ambiguous" but the intended meaning is beyond obvious, then it's quite likely that the sentence is still ok. (The same goes for pronouns -- most technically "ambiguous" pronouns are fine, as long as it's clear enough what they are supposed to describe.)