GMATPREP: Charles Lindbergh, for his attempt...

[MdAbuAsad]

dave --

shouldn't we have an "and" or "so" he therefore? First clause is independent as well as second clause, but there is no conjunction. Funny because in C there is a awkwardly placed "so" as if they were tricking you.

yes, (a) is a run-on.

Hi Ron,
In A, there is a use of connecting word ''therefore''. so, why do we say A is run-on? is it really run-on sentence? Thank you...
Here is option A:
Charles Lindbergh, for his attempt at a solo transatlantic flight, was very reluctant to have any extra weight on his plane, he therefore refused to carry even a pound of mail, despite being offered $1,000 to do so.

[RonPurewal]

"therefore" -- like "also", "nevertheless", "still", "regardless", etc. -- is NOT a connecting word. it's an adverb.

adverbs and adjectives are just modifiers.
they may be essential for conveying the correct meaning, but they don't affect the grammar/structure of the sentence in any way whatsoever.

[AaronW924]

"is the reason that" is wrong

this kind of construction is generally reserved for OBJECTS of verbs.
e.g., if I painted a mural, I could write the mural that I painted...

here, this usage creates a nonsense construction.
the reason that lindbergh refused... implies that lindbergh said "no" to a reason ("refused a reason"). that doesn't make sense.

this kind of thing is on the exam almost certainly as a strike against native speakers of english, who, when they talk, use similar constructions VERY frequently.
e.g., a married couple might talk (literally, out loud) about "the day that we met"--but, in writing, that construction implies that they "met a day". nonsense.

on the other hand, this sentence...
May 10 was the day that I wasted visiting houses I couldn't afford
...is perfectly correct, since the writer is (correctly) asserting that (s)he wasted the day.

Sorry for bumping this thread again, but I really have something confused me:
yesterday I saw a question in Manhattan CAT, the right answer includes the structure below:

the reason people yawn is that yawning increases blood flow.

The question is it seems to say people yawn the reason, thus it would be incorrect? I know may be I misunderstand something, but I can not find the difference between this sentence and the situation mentioned above, which says it is illegitimate to use "reason that sb do" when the reason is not the real object of the action "do"
could you help me to solve this problem?

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Well done for making a connection between problems. I don't think that there's a contradiction here; however, the two modifiers make it confusing.

The phrase 'the reason people yawn' is fine. Ron points out that, in usual speech, we often say 'the reason that people yawn' and that this construction is wrong as it suggests that people are yawning out a reason. We don't want to use 'that' between the word 'reason' and the thing we're giving a reason for.

Now, don't extend this idea to make a rule that "you can't follow 'the reason' with 'that'". This would be too simplistic. Take the following example: someone asks 'Why did you go home?', and you could answer 'I felt tired.' In this case we can say: 'The reason I went home was that I felt tired.' Here, the words 'that I felt tired' mean 'the fact that I felt tired'. So it's fine to use the word 'that' before the thing we're saying the reason is. Take a look SC802 from OG2018 for a good example of a 'that' phrase. And think how you could transform answer D in the Lindburgh problem to make it correct.

That's the same kind of construction we've got here: 'the reason people yawn is that yawning increases blood flow'.

[AaronW924]

thanks for your reply!

I think may be I have found out why I feel confused. I thought the" reason people yawn" equals to " reason that people yawn" because it is an omit of "that", is it illegitimate to think in this way? actually they are different structures? if so, could you please tell me what kind of structure is "reason people yawn"
And I think I can correct the answer D in the Lindburgh problem as below:

The reason Charles Lindbergh refused to carry even a pound of mail, although he was offered $1000 to do so, was that he was very reluctant to carry any extra weight on his plane when he attempted his solo transatlantic flight.

is this change correct?

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Looks good to me, well done.