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Jamie
 
 

Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be...

by Jamie Sun Nov 16, 2008 9:30 am

Hello--
a SC question for ya,

Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be indistinguishable at first from ordinary fluctuations in the financial markets.
a. same
b. so gradual so that they can be indistinguishable
c. so gradual that they are unable to be distinguished
d. gradual enough not to be distinguishable
e. gradual enough so that one cannot distinguish them

I liked "so...that" construction, so i chose c. Is this question testing concision?
The correct answer is A.
kylo
 
 

by kylo Mon Nov 17, 2008 8:05 am

i think C changes the intended meaning of the sentence.
C gives a feeling that economic shifts want to be distinguished among the various fluctuations.

hence C is incorrect.



Thanks!
RonPurewal
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by RonPurewal Fri Nov 28, 2008 8:37 am

if this is an official problem, then i guess the issue boils down to the fact that the incorrect answer (c) is substantially more wordy than the correct answer (a).
i don't see anything strictly ungrammatical in (c).
Jamie
 
 

by Jamie Sun Nov 30, 2008 7:13 pm

RPurewal Wrote:if this is an official problem, then i guess the issue boils down to the fact that the incorrect answer (c) is substantially more wordy than the correct answer (a).
i don't see anything strictly ungrammatical in (c).


Ron, thanks so much for your clarification! Hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
yup, this problem was from my GMATPrep verbal.
-Jamie
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by RonPurewal Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:54 am

Jamie Wrote:Hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.


same to you.
Lisa
 
 

by Lisa Thu Dec 11, 2008 2:59 pm

I just A because it fit with the idiom: so X as to Y.
ddwilli
 
 

idioms

by ddwilli Fri Dec 12, 2008 5:20 pm

Lisa, that was a great catch!
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by RonPurewal Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:24 am

i also find something a bit awkward about the use of "unable" to describe something that's not actually an inability of the subject.

here's what i mean:

this plant is unable to perform photosynthesis.
legitimate, because this actually describes an inability of the plant itself.

this sentence:
they (= major economic shifts) are unable to be distinguished...
i don't like this, because we're not actually talking about an "inability" possessed by the economic shifts themselves.
if we'd said something like "economic shifts are unable to destroy your equity", then i'd find that more appealing.

this is all completely off the top of my head.
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Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be...

by rahul_bitsp Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:46 am

Hello.
Option A says "so gradual as to be indistiguishable". Doesn't the "so as to be" construction denote negation? (e.g. so good to be true). I think the correct construction should be "so gradual as to be distiguishable'.

Can you pls clarify?

Many thanks!
Rahul.
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Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be...

by goelmohit2002 Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:46 pm

Can some one please tell what is wrong with D and E ?

B I think is breaking the idiom...so .....so that
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Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be...

by arielle.bertman Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:05 pm

Hi Ron - I am still a little unclear how i would approach a similar sentence in the future. In terms of splits we have

so gradual vs. gradual enough

indistinguishable vs distinguished (depends on the rest of the sentence but is one correct or not)

so gradual as/so/that.....

can you walk through your approach? i too struggled with a vs. c.

thanks!!

arielle
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Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be...

by goelmohit2002 Sat Aug 08, 2009 4:12 pm

Can someone please share his/her thoughts....how to reach to correct answer ?
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Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be...

by sunny.jain Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:27 am

Here are my views:

A. so gradual as to be indistinguishable
Generally in Idiom "X...so ...as to be Y", Y refers to X, Which is true in this case. So its not ambiguous. I did not find any other problem so i moved forward.

B. so gradual so that they can be indistinguishable

So...so that.... : Incorrect Idiom : OUT

C. so gradual that they are unable to be distinguished

i found "be" is not required here, If it were 'so gradual that they are unable to distinguish", I would have choosen this, as it is more clear, But again Here it seems like economic shifts are doing some kind of action. Which is awkward.
editor: no. "they are unable to distinguish" is wrong for at least two MAJOR reasons.
first, it would mean that the economic shifts themselves are able to distinguish between things. this is clearly not the meaning of the sentence, nor is it at all reasonable.
second, you'd be left with just "distinguish from X", which is unidiomatic.


D. gradual enough not to be distinguishable
Correct idiom : enough..to.., usage is right here but "not to be distinguishable" is more wordy than indistinguishable. But still I will keep this in my pocket.
editor: i'm not sure whether "enough not to..." is idiomatic. see below.

E. gradual enough so that one cannot distinguish them
Incorrect Idiom : enough...to ?, so Out.

Out of A and D, I found A is more clear, using less Pronoun/Noun than D.
So I choose A.
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Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be...

by RonPurewal Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:36 am

rahul_bitsp Wrote:Hello.
Option A says "so gradual as to be indistiguishable". Doesn't the "so as to be" construction denote negation? (e.g. so good to be true). I think the correct construction should be "so gradual as to be distiguishable'.


no. you're confusing it with "too ADJ to be...", which indeed denotes negation.

"so ADJ as to be..." (note the presence of as, which you didn't appear to notice) is an affirmation, not a negation.
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Re: Often major economic shifts are so gradual as to be...

by RonPurewal Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:40 am

goelmohit2002 Wrote:Can some one please tell what is wrong with D and E ?

B I think is breaking the idiom...so .....so that


(e) is unidiomatic. you can't mix "enough" and "so that".
the correct idiom is "enough to...". you can't "double up" with another idiom.

as for (d), i'm not sure whether you're allowed to insert "not" between "enough" and "to".
i don't think that you are.
if anyone has seen a legitimate source in which this happens (i.e., "enough not to..."), please let us know.