George Washington

[zarak_khan]

George Washington Carver dedicated his life to the economic strengthening of the South with improvement of soil and diversification of crops.
(A) the economic strengthening of the South with improvement of soil and diversification of crops
(B) strengthening the economy in the South with soil improvement and the diversification of crops
(C) strengthening the economy of the South through soil improvement and crop diversification
(D) the strengthening of the economy of the South through improving soil and crop diversifying
(E) the economic strengthening in the South with improving soil and diversifying crops

Question 1 - Is economic strengthening in the South incorrect? Do we have to say economic strengthening of the South?

Question 2 - Why is with incorrect? Does through convey a different meaning?

[tim]

tankobe -
yes, the prepositional phrase you mention (note it is "through", not "throngh") can modify the noun phrase. also, regarding your previous post, be sure when you make flash cards that you include examples of how these are used correctly in context. you want to be able to compare something you see on the GMAT to a complete example from your own experience..

zarak -
both of the alternatives you ask about change the meaning of the sentence. if you say "economic strengthening in the south", we don't know who or what is being strengthened in the south. if you use "with" it sounds like the soil improvement and crop diversification are helping with the economic strengthening rather than acting as the conduits for this strengthening..

[patelbhavesh_09]

tankobe -
yes, the prepositional phrase you mention (note it is "through", not "throngh") can modify the noun phrase. also, regarding your previous post, be sure when you make flash cards that you include examples of how these are used correctly in context. you want to be able to compare something you see on the GMAT to a complete example from your own experience..

zarak -
both of the alternatives you ask about change the meaning of the sentence. if you say "economic strengthening in the south", we don't know who or what is being strengthened in the south. if you use "with" it sounds like the soil improvement and crop diversification are helping with the economic strengthening rather than acting as the conduits for this strengthening..

Hi Tim,

Thanks a lot for this wonderful explanation.

I always had a doubt about usage of "with". what I understand by your post is that
"with" do mean something like "and"
do "with" serve any other purpose?
what is usage of "with" in gmat perspective?

-Bhavesh

[tim]

this is a really baffling question, i suppose because there is no GMAT-specific answer to this question. you just have to know enough about the English language to be able to use the word "with" properly. if you have a more specific question perhaps we can help..

[newbee24]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for all your explanation!

Is "soil improvement" parallel to "the diversification of crops"?

In general is "adjective+noun" parallel to "article +noun + preposition"?

More specifically, when I see parallelism that has the above construction can I straight away eliminate this answer choice OR should I keep this answer choice under consideration until a better choice appears?

Thanks again!

[RonPurewal]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for all your explanation!

Is "soil improvement" parallel to "the diversification of crops"?

use the splits!
soil improvement || crop diversification is clearly BETTER parallelism, so this is a non-issue.

In general is "adjective+noun" parallel to "article +noun + preposition"?

it can be -- since both constructions are basically nouns, with a bunch of decoration -- but not *if* there is a BETTER way to write the construction.
your job is not to understand every single nuance of what is allowed in parallelism; your job is simply to decide which choice(s) has/have the BEST parallelism of all the answer choices.
luckily, this is a much easier task.

More specifically, when I see parallelism that has the above construction can I straight away eliminate this answer choice

no.

should I keep this answer choice under consideration until a better choice appears?

yes.

[violetwind]

Hi,Ron,

I just wanna confirm if "dedicate himself to the strengthening ...." and "dedicate himself to strengthening" are both right.

thank you very much!

[biswarup.roychowdhury]

Can someone pls elaborate on the correct use of with (as per GMAT).

I read some where

''Students with the highest marks are asked to join the class.." is wrong use of 'with'...it should be "students who have the highest marks are asked to join the class"...

can some one pls explain if this is indeed wrong and if yes, why ?

[RonPurewal]

Hi,Ron,

I just wanna confirm if "dedicate himself to the strengthening ...." and "dedicate himself to strengthening" are both right.

thank you very much!

the first is correct if you mean to say that he dedicated himself to the abstract ideal of strengthening the region in general.

the second is correct if you mean that he actually intended to strengthen the region by himself.

so, it really depends on context. e.g., "Ryan dedicated himself to the strengthening of his ankles" is nonsense, because that is not an abstract ideal; "Ryan dedicated himself to strengthening his ankles" works, because, well, that's something he can do for himself.
here, the reverse is true, so it's the other way around.

[RonPurewal]

Can someone pls elaborate on the correct use of with (as per GMAT).

I read some where

''Students with the highest marks are asked to join the class.." is wrong use of 'with'...it should be "students who have the highest marks are asked to join the class"...

the source is wrong; both are fine.

(in general, "i read somewhere..." is always a bad sign; if you can't remember the source, then it's probably some random, unreliable source.)

[davetzulin]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for all your explanation!

Is "soil improvement" parallel to "the diversification of crops"?

use the splits!
soil improvement || crop diversification is clearly BETTER parallelism, so this is a non-issue.

In general is "adjective+noun" parallel to "article +noun + preposition"?

it can be -- since both constructions are basically nouns, with a bunch of decoration -- but not *if* there is a BETTER way to write the construction.
your job is not to understand every single nuance of what is allowed in parallelism; your job is simply to decide which choice(s) has/have the BEST parallelism of all the answer choices.
luckily, this is a much easier task.

More specifically, when I see parallelism that has the above construction can I straight away eliminate this answer choice

no.

should I keep this answer choice under consideration until a better choice appears?

yes.

D, however, says we're going to strengthen the economy through "improving soil and crop diversifying" - that's not parallel. You'd have to say "diversifying crops."

Ron, I assume the same can be said for D? "improving soil" and "crop diversifying" are both gerunds, one with an object the other with an adjective in front.

I have a concern that on some tricky questions the gmat might use the above parallelism in a correct answer whereas the wrong answer choice (wrong for something more egregious, but maybe subtle enough I missed it) has perfect parallelism.

i was thinking of treating this better/worse parallelism as "concision" priority, but it seems it has more gravity than that since you said you can strike answer choices if a better one appears

[RonPurewal]

I have a concern that on some tricky questions the gmat might use the above parallelism in a correct answer whereas the wrong answer choice (wrong for something more egregious, but maybe subtle enough I missed it) has perfect parallelism.

rest assured that they won't do that. the gmat is not that kind of test.

(even if they wrote a problem that accidentally did something dastardly like that -- and even in the extremely unlikely event that said problem made it through gmac's many, many rounds of editing -- the problem would still get booted during its "experimental" phase, since it wouldn't have the sort of statistical profile that a good problem must have.)

[ntr1989512]

The OP is correct in his copying of choice C. Choice C has no "of" - I have verified this in the actual GmatPrep

It simply reads - C: the strengthening the economy of the south through soil improvement and crop diversification

How is this sentence correct?

i bet the first "the" isn't there: GW dedicated his life to strengthening the economy...

if it is there, then the problem contains a typographical error.

yes, the original choice is "strengthening the economy of the South through soil improvement and crop diversification"

[tim]

that makes more sense.. :)

[aditya8062]

Good Day Ron
i fail to understand as why choice A is so wrong
choice A:the economic strengthening of the south with improvement of soil and diversification of corps

can you please explain as why preposition "with" is wrong here ?
i had a feeling that prepositional phrase without comma can act as adverbial modifier .also "with improvement of soil and diversification of corps" is perfectly parallel .so this prepositional phrase is actually describing as how GWC dedicated his life .

doubt 2 : is "economic strengthening of the south" blatantly wrong here .if so why ?

doubt 3 : you have said in the post above following thing :

i don't think you can follow "through" with an -ing construction.

but ing construction act as gerund (noun) so a preposition "through" can follow ing construction
if my analysis above is right can i consider following sentence legitimate: GWC dedicated his life to the strengthening of the economy of the south through improving soil and diversifying crop .