Potential TO or Potential FOR???? VERY TRICKY

[JJ32]

I posted 2 questions on purpose in order to make a striking comparison

In large doses, analgesics that work in the brain as antagonists to certain chemicals have caused psychological disturbances in patients, which may limit their potential to relieve severe pain.

(A) which may limit their potential to relieve
(B) which may limit their potential for relieving
(C) which may limit such analgesics’ potential to relieve
(D) an effect that may limit their potential to relieve
(E) an effect that may limit the potential of such analgesics for relieving

OA: E

Following the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, investigators concluded that many key people employed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and its contractors work an excessive amount of overtime that has the potential of causing errors in judgment.
(A) overtime that has the potential of causing
(B) overtime that has the potential to cause
(C) overtime that potentially can cause
(D) overtime, a practice that has the potential for causing
(E) overtime, a practice that can, potentially, cause

OA: E

These two are really confusing, and I couldn't find an answer in the book of ManhattanGMAT Sentence Correction.

HELP! Please!!!

[StaceyKoprince]

Thanks for clarifying why you posted two so we didn't tell you to split them up! :)

Generally speaking, they're both okay if used correctly. Follow "potential to" with an infinitive verb. Follow "potential for" with a noun. Know that they usually prefer an infinitive verb, where possible, rather than a gerund (a verb made into a noun). But you don't actually need to know how to deal with these idioms to answer the first one - they don't make you decide based on that fuzziness.

In the first one, A, B, and D have pronoun issues ("their" has multiple possible antecedents) and A, B, and C have modifier issues ("which" introduces a noun modifier, which must be placed next to the noun it modifies... and it's not).

In the second one, A, B, and C have modifier issues. "That" introduces an essential noun modifier, but the information following the word "that" is not essential in order to understand the meaning of the words coming before the word "that" - rather, the stuff after the word "that" makes an additional, but separate, point. Also, "that' introduces a noun modifier, but the noun before is not what they're trying to refer to - they're trying to refer to the fact that they work an excessive amount of overtime. That's a whole clause, not just a noun.

To know whether something is essential, try stopping the sentence at the word "overtime." Do you still understand everything that was written to that point? Sure. You've lost the meaning of the extra words, but it hasn't messed up the meaning of the words up to the word "overtime." Then look at choices D and E - they introduce "that" after the words "a practice." Can you stop at "a practice" now and still know what they're talking about? Nope.

Now, between D and E, you do have to know that they consider "has the potential for causing" wordier than "can, potentially, cause. Fewer words, yes, but also just using the verb form (since we're talking about an action, that's preferred to writing the verb in noun form).

[Guest]

For the second question even though E is concise, 'can potentially' looks redundant to me. So I chose D. But the OA is E.

Please clarify this.

[RonPurewal]

i would actually discriminate between them, along the following lines:
"potential to" --> just describes a potential effect of something; may or may not be intentional or aimed at some goal
"potential for" --> used only when a specific goal is intended. in the first sentence, this goal is the relieving of severe pain.

in the second sentence, causing errors in judgment is definitely not a goal or intended effect, so "potential for" is incorrect in that sentenc.

[gmatprep14]

Know that they usually prefer an infinitive verb, where possible, rather than a gerund (a verb made into a noun). But you don't actually need to know how to deal with these idioms to answer the first one - they don't make you decide based on that fuzziness.

Hi Stacey

Reviving an old thread ,wanted to know your views

I used to believe the above 2 things you have mentioned i.e.
1 - when in doubt , go for the infinitive form
2 - GMAT won't test you based on a distinction between for verb-ing and infinitive

till I saw this Question - OG 12 SC - Q 15 . I know we are not allowed to post OG questions here but If you could spare some time and have a look at this question , you will find that option D and E are both grammatically correct and just differ over the usage of
verb-ing/ infinitive .

How do you pick the correct answer ?

My question in particular is to understand the following sentence structure

X(noun) has urged Y(noun) to create Z(noun) to take/for taking charge

[gmatprep14]

One more Q from GmatPrep which forces you to make a distinction between to verb and for verb+ing

Japan’s abundant rainfall and the typically mild temperature throughout most of the country have produced a lush vegetation cover and, despite the mountainous terrain and generally poor soils, it has made possible the raising of a variety of crops.
A) it has made possible the raising of
B) has made possible fro them to raise
C) have made it possible to raise
D) have made it possible for raising
E) thus making it possible for them to raise

OA - C

[gmatprep14]

Ron/Stacey

I guess you guys missed this post . I am waiting :)

[enniguy]

One more Q from GmatPrep which forces you to make a distinction between to verb and for verb+ing

Japan’s abundant rainfall and the typically mild temperature throughout most of the country have produced a lush vegetation cover and, despite the mountainous terrain and generally poor soils, it has made possible the raising of a variety of crops.
A) it has made possible the raising of
B) has made possible fro them to raise
C) have made it possible to raise
D) have made it possible for raising
E) thus making it possible for them to raise

OA - C

This is how I solved it. "have" is necessary in underlined part as it has to be parallel with "have produced a lush vegetation cover". That leaves C and D.
Going by Ron's explanation, there is no specific goal of rainfall to raise crops. It just so happens that the rainfall helps the growth. So C should be preferred over D.

Is this approach acceptable? Also, is "raising" in Option D a verb? I think that it has to be preceded with the article "the" to be a gerund.

[RonPurewal]

Reviving an old thread ,wanted to know your views

I used to believe the above 2 things you have mentioned i.e.
1 - when in doubt , go for the infinitive form
2 - GMAT won't test you based on a distinction between for verb-ing and infinitive

#2 is not what stacey was trying to say; she certainly was not implying that you will NEVER be tested on gerund vs. infinitive. in fact, that difference is tested on all sorts of idioms.
what she was saying was this: if both of them are correct, you won't be tested on the subtleties.
in the case of "potential to / potential for", both of those are correct (in slightly different contexts), so stacey was saying that you won't be required to make that distinction.

in a circumstance where one of the two is clearly correct and the other is clearly incorrect - such as elected to VERB (correct) vs. elected VERBing (incorrect), from a different o.g. problem - the test certainly reserves the right to test that particular knowledge.

X(noun) has urged Y(noun) to create Z(noun) to take/for taking charge

this is a context in which the former is correct and the latter is incorrect.

[RonPurewal]

One more Q from GmatPrep which forces you to make a distinction between to verb and for verb+ing

Japan’s abundant rainfall and the typically mild temperature throughout most of the country have produced a lush vegetation cover and, despite the mountainous terrain and generally poor soils, it has made possible the raising of a variety of crops.
A) it has made possible the raising of
B) has made possible fro them to raise
C) have made it possible to raise
D) have made it possible for raising
E) thus making it possible for them to raise

OA - C

This is how I solved it. "have" is necessary in underlined part as it has to be parallel with "have produced a lush vegetation cover". That leaves C and D.
Going by Ron's explanation, there is no specific goal of rainfall to raise crops. It just so happens that the rainfall helps the growth. So C should be preferred over D.

Is this approach acceptable? Also, is "raising" in Option D a verb? I think that it has to be preceded with the article "the" to be a gerund.

nope, this is off.

first, my explanation above is applicable ONLY to the SPECIFIC EXAMPLE of "potential to VERB" vs. "potential for VERBing". it is absolutely not a generalization to all such idioms.

"made it possible for raising" is not idiomatic, so (d) is gone.

"made it possible to raise" is idiomatic. (this is a very special instance in which the pronoun "it" doesn't have to have a referent; see here for more information.) so (c) is fine.

"made it possible for PERSON/PEOPLE to raise" is also idiomatic, so that part of (b) looks fine. but there's a problem: we don't know who "them" is. (the clear implication is that "them" = the japanese people, but a "clear implication" isn't good enough; we can't use a pronoun in this sort of context unless the referent is explicitly mentioned.)

in (a), "it" doesn't have a referent ("Japan’s abundant rainfall and the typically mild temperature" is plural).

in (e) there's no verb, making the overall sentence a fragment.

[enniguy]

nope, this is off.

Ron could you elaborate why my approach was wrong?
Subject: Japan’s abundant rainfall and the typically mild temperature
Predicate 1: have produced a lush vegetation cover and
Modifier 1: , despite the mountainous terrain and generally poor soils,
Predicate 2 has to start with a verb/helping verb, in this case are "has" and "have". Since the subject is plural, it has to be "have".

Japan’s abundant rainfall and the typically mild temperature throughout most of the country have produced a lush vegetation cover and, despite the mountainous terrain and generally poor soils, it has made possible the raising of a variety of crops.
A) it has made possible the raising of
B) has made possible fro them to raise
C) have made it possible to raise
D) have made it possible for raising
E) thus making it possible for them to raise

Approach:
This is how I solved it. "have" is necessary in underlined part as it has to be parallel with "have produced a lush vegetation cover". That leaves C and D.
Going by Ron's explanation, there is no specific goal of rainfall to raise crops. It just so happens that the rainfall helps the growth. So C should be preferred over D.

Is this approach acceptable? Also, is "raising" in Option D a verb? I think that it has to be preceded with the article "the" to be a gerund.

Sorry if I am asking too much.
Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

nope, this is off.

Ron could you elaborate why my approach was wrong?
Subject: Japan’s abundant rainfall and the typically mild temperature
Predicate 1: have produced a lush vegetation cover and
Modifier 1: , despite the mountainous terrain and generally poor soils,
Predicate 2 has to start with a verb/helping verb, in this case are "has" and "have". Since the subject is plural, it has to be "have".

oh no, that part of your approach is just fine.

what was "off" was the way in which you distinguished between "to raise" and "for raising" (in your comparison of C and D).
you used what i wrote above, which only applies to "POTENTIAL to/for".

by the way, your posting a new problem in this thread is a violation of the forum rules. you MUST post a NEW THREAD for each problem, unless you are posting only about the exact issues that are already treated in the given thread.

so, if you have any more questions about this problem, please post a new thread (in which you post the complete question, with answer choices, at the top). thanks.

[hitesh.aggarwal]

[deleted]

[RonPurewal]

i had to kill your previous post, since you quoted an entire OG problem verbatim.
i see you're new here -- please take the time to read the forum rules (first post in every folder), so that you don't spend your time writing posts that later have to be deleted for breaking those rules.

please re-post your question using allowable resources as a guide; thanks.

[charmanineW924]

i would actually discriminate between them, along the following lines:
"potential to" --> just describes a potential effect of something; may or may not be intentional or aimed at some goal
"potential for" --> used only when a specific goal is intended. in the first sentence, this goal is the relieving of severe pain.

in the second sentence, causing errors in judgment is definitely not a goal or intended effect, so "potential for" is incorrect in that sentenc.

I am confused about your explanations. I still cannot understand the differences between them. I try to understand waht you said and can you evaluate whether I am right or not ?
I think " potential to " means that we do not know the results or effects .We just expect the results or effects . I mean we hope to have the effects or we guess the results are that . however, " potential for " means the results or the effects are already known.
If I am wrong ,can you please explain it with some examples ? Thank you .