Omission of 'as' & 'that'

[shravani407]

Hi
1. Can't the Q12 on page 32 of the fifth edition of MGMAT be rewritten as "With haste, the senator read her speech" ? Is the use of 'that' in the sentence necessary? When can 'that' be omitted?

2. Q3 on page 49 rewritten as:
"A venomous snake was designated as the emblem of the rebellion by the insurgency". I read in a post that the "as" needs to be dropped in GMAT? Can you explain why?

[RonPurewal]

hi,
per the forum rules, please cite the original text of these problems. thanks.

[shravani407]

For the first question, the original sentence is : "It was with haste that the senator read her speech". MGMAT answer is : "The senator read her speech hastily. "
Is the use of 'that' in the sentence above necessary? When can 'that' be omitted?

For the second question, the original sentence is : " A venomous snake designated the emblem of the rebellion by the insurgency" .
MGMAT asnwer is :" A venomous snake was designated the emblem of the rebellion by the insurgency".
My version" " A venomous snake was designated as the emblem of the rebellion by the insurgency". Is there any issue in using "as" here?

Thanks

[RonPurewal]

For the first question, the original sentence is : "It was with haste that the senator read her speech". MGMAT answer is : "The senator read her speech hastily. "
Is the use of 'that' in the sentence above necessary? When can 'that' be omitted?

you can't omit "that"... but the GMAT will not test that sort of thing.

in the official problems, the correct answers are always written efficiently. therefore, if you see a pair of choices that are clearly less efficient vs. more efficient (e.g., The pruning of the tree was done... vs. The tree was pruned...), you can reliably eliminate the less efficient one.

[RonPurewal]

For the second question, the original sentence is : " A venomous snake designated the emblem of the rebellion by the insurgency" .
MGMAT asnwer is :" A venomous snake was designated the emblem of the rebellion by the insurgency".
My version" " A venomous snake was designated as the emblem of the rebellion by the insurgency". Is there any issue in using "as" here?

correct usage is just 'designated X' (i.e., without 'as').
this sort of thing is VERY unlikely to be tested on the exam. (when such obscure idioms do appear, they are almost invariably there to distract you from more fundamental things!)

[abhisheks901]

For the second question, the original sentence is : " A venomous snake designated the emblem of the rebellion by the insurgency" .
MGMAT asnwer is :" A venomous snake was designated the emblem of the rebellion by the insurgency".
My version" " A venomous snake was designated as the emblem of the rebellion by the insurgency". Is there any issue in using "as" here?

correct usage is just 'designated X' (i.e., without 'as').
this sort of thing is VERY unlikely to be tested on the exam. (when such obscure idioms do appear, they are almost invariably there to distract you from more fundamental things!)

Dear Sir,

Can you please explain this query more clearly ? Because i also think that "as" should come between "designated" and "the".

thanks

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

There seem to be two issues here. First, the meaning of the verb 'designate' is 'appoint, or give special status to'. If we understand this, then saying that the snake designated the emblem is absurd, as the snake didn't take the action.

Secondly, the idiom 'designate X as Y' or 'designate X Y'. Ron is certain the latter is the only correct one; I would suggest that both are acceptable. It looks like the kind of nuance unlikely to be tested on the GMAT.