are/is

[RonPurewal]

Ron, please can you explain why choice C is incorrect?
considering you mentioned "although i'm not 100% sure that "geared to" is incorrect"

If we intend to mean AIM AT then we have to use "Geared Towards" it sound better to me than "Geared To"

"towards" is a british english word that is incorrect in american english; the proper american word is "toward".
(this is not something that will be tested, but it's useful to know if you're going to have professional correspondence with americans.)

i'm not sure whether "geared to" is incorrect in general; i'll wait on that judgment until i see more official evidence either way.

[Willy]

Ron, please can you explain why choice C is incorrect?
considering you mentioned "although i'm not 100% sure that "geared to" is incorrect"

If we intend to mean AIM AT then we have to use "Geared Towards" it sound better to me than "Geared To"

"towards" is a british english word that is incorrect in american english; the proper american word is "toward".
(this is not something that will be tested, but it's useful to know if you're going to have professional correspondence with americans.)

i'm not sure whether "geared to" is incorrect in general; i'll wait on that judgment until i see more official evidence either way.

Thanks for the reply once again Ron. But I have a following question:

Option C says :
(C) are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation

Then I think we can reject option C because THEIR don't have a proper antecedent as " athletes' " is used as a possessive and can't be the antecedent of "their".

Am I right Ron?

[RonPurewal]

Then I think we can reject option C because THEIR don't have a proper antecedent as " athletes' " is used as a possessive and can't be the antecedent of "their".

Am I right Ron?

no. possessive pronouns can refer to possessives.

more importantly, read this post:
post46683.html#p46683

[j.shirish]

Hey ron ...
any update .. .i am just not able to figure out the basis for rejecting (C) here other than considering geared to as unidiomatic ...
thanks.

[RonPurewal]

Hey ron ...
any update .. .i am just not able to figure out the basis for rejecting (C) here other than considering geared to as unidiomatic ...
thanks.

that may be the only thing. fortunately, however, gmac has ceased using such idiomatic differences in official problems; see here:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... -the-gmac/

[jyothi h]

Ron, please can you explain why choice C is incorrect?
considering you mentioned "although i'm not 100% sure that "geared to" is incorrect"

If we intend to mean AIM AT then we have to use "Geared Towards" it sound better to me than "Geared To"

"towards" is a british english word that is incorrect in american english; the proper american word is "toward".
(this is not something that will be tested, but it's useful to know if you're going to have professional correspondence with americans.)

i'm not sure whether "geared to" is incorrect in general; i'll wait on that judgment until i see more official evidence either way.

You are like the Encyclopedia for GMat ! :) . Crisp answer for every question.

[RonPurewal]

You are like the Encyclopedia for GMat ! :) . Crisp answer for every question.

thanks.
if there's any reason, it's that i don't bother to try learning or remembering "rules" -- i just generalize from my own experience/reading of the language.
this is the same way we all learn our native languages as children (no small child learns "grammar/usage rules"; every child learns language through years and years of imitation), and our brains are pretty much wired for it.

[divineacclivity]

I know C is not the correct choice but could you please explain if "their" is correctly used in choice C:
"... are geared to enhance athletes' performance and their preparation"

"athletes' performance" and "their preparation" - sound parallel but also sound awkward to me. So, I'm not sure if it is correct. Thanks in anticipating.

Ron, please can you explain why choice C is incorrect?
considering you mentioned "although i'm not 100% sure that "geared to" is incorrect"

If we intend to mean AIM AT then we have to use "Geared Towards" it sound better to me than "Geared To"

[RonPurewal]

their = athletes'

This usage is fine.

[divineacclivity]

their = athletes'

This usage is fine.

Thank you.

[RonPurewal]

Sure.

[ShriramC110]

Hi Ron,

Can you please explain me why is option C incorrect??
Atletes' performance and athletes' preparation seems parallel.
Then whats the reason??

[NL]

I think the programs target 2 purposes: enhancing and preparing, not enhance "their preparation"
(I picked C too, ouch…. then realized this-a classical parallelism trap-maybe )

[sahilk47]

Ron

My doubt is that even the fact that Sports Medicine Programs is written in capitals should does not direct us to assume that this is a singular proper noun ? Can you kindly guide to identify singular and plural subjects ?

Thank you

[RonPurewal]

ok, i see what you're saying (e.g., 'the United States' is singular).

remember, though, that this test does not require any specialized knowledge.
'the United States' is singular, but you only know that because you know that. it's memorized knowledge—you know that the USA is a single country.

without such specialized knowledge, you would, quite reasonably, assume that 'X States' is plural.
e.g., have you ever heard of the Papal States?
if not, then i'm sure you would instinctively treat Papal States as plural, because ... well, because it's plural. (in the case of the Papal States, you'd be correct.)

same here.