Difficult SC Problem

[JA750]

Hello,
Can you please walk me through canceling out the incorrect answer choices citing grammar errors. I selected (C) over (E) because I thought "When referring to" sounded better than "Referring to." Thanks!


In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that their prospects for being hired and promoted are being stunted by their habit.

a. In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that

b. Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about

c. When referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety about

d. With reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about

e. Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety that

[gokul_nair1984]

Could you please cite the source of this question?
(Also, sources of the others that you posted)

[salman30]

Could you please cite the source of this question?
(Also, sources of the others that you posted)

Hmmm i am a bit confused as well. E looks good to me as well. However, what is that correct split here - anxiety about or anxiety that ? and why ?

Is it GMATPrep ?

[RonPurewal]

Hello,
Can you please walk me through canceling out the incorrect answer choices citing grammar errors. I selected (C) over (E) because I thought "When referring to" sounded better than "Referring to." Thanks!


In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that their prospects for being hired and promoted are being stunted by their habit.

a. In reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety that

b. Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about

c. When referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety about

d. With reference to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently expressed anxiety about

e. Referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety that

this is one of those examples in which the location of the line break between the underlined and non-underlined parts makes the problem more difficult.

if you join together choices containing "about" with the non-underlined part of the sentence, you will notice that what you get is not actually a sentence at all:
When referring to the current hostility toward smoking, smokers frequently express anxiety about their prospects ... are being stunted by their habit.
that's not a sentence. (you can't say "about SUBJECT VERB". about is a preposition; it should be followed by a noun, or noun + modifiers, but not by a complete sentence.)
... so all the choices with "about" are incorrect.

also, "when referring..." doesn't make sense, either; this would imply that the smokers only have these feelings when they are actually "referring to the current hostility" in their conversations.
viz.:
When worrying about her future, Rebecca frequently wakes up in the middle of the night --> this just means that rebecca gets poor sleep on those occasions when she is worrying about her future. it doesn't mean that she generally misses out on good sleep.
Worrying about her future, Rebecca frequently wakes up in the middle of the night --> this means that rebecca wakes up in the middle of the night in general; the initial modifier is just telling us the reason why.

the sentence in this problem is more like the second of these examples; it describes a general worry that the smokers have, not just something they worry about only when they're talking about it. therefore, the version without "when" is better.

[pmmalkan+gmat]

As Ron stated above B, C, D are wrong because of "about".

Between A and E there are two splits -

1. "In reference to" and "referring to" - I felt both are ok grammatically -> first one is wordier though

2. "expressed anxiety" and "express anxiety" -> (E) wins here with "express anxiety" because the non-underlined portion of the sentence contains "are being stunted" -> this means the action is still going on; hence requires present tense "express anxiety" rather than past tense "expressed anxiety"

On a completely different note check the usage of "being" in the non-underlined portion ;)

Thanks,
Priya

[ChrisB]

Hi,

Just adding on to the last comment - I think this problem is from 1000SC. If I can confirm I will have to remove it.

The use of "being" is so uncommon in "correct" GMAT problems that I'm very suspicious of this problem. We've found that of the answer choices in which "being" is an option, only .4% are correct. On top of that, I am pretty sure the majority of that .4% uses "being" as in "human being."

Suspect.

-Chris