SC: Marconi

[cesar.rodriguez.blanco]

I do not understand this SC. I picked A, but it is wrong. I do not like any of the answers, but the OA is C.
How can I discard all the other answer choices?
Thanks

Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the
telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is precisely the
opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.
A. Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool
for private conversation; instead, it is
B. Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for
private conversation, but which is
C. Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could
substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become
D. Marconi conceived of the radio to be a tool for private conversation, a substitute
for the telephone, which has become
E. Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for
private conversation, other than what it is,

[mikrodj]

(A) Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the
telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is precisely the
opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

a tool for private conversation modifies telephone. The modifier is set off by commas so let's see what happens if we remove it

Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the
telephone; instead it is precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

Here the contrast makes no sense and distorts the intended meaning of the sentence.

B. Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for
private conversation, but which is precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

which here seems to refer to telephone, distorting the meaning.
same problem as A with the modifier a tool for private conversation

C. Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could
substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

This sentence clearly conveys the meaning.

D. Marconi conceived of the radio to be a tool for private conversation, a substitute
for the telephone, which has become precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

First I think that the correct idiom is conceive of X as Y.
which refers to telephone, distorting the meaning


E. Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for
private conversation, other than what it is, precisely the opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.

as in D idiom is conceive of X as Y
a tool for private conversation modifies the telephone rather than the radio distorting the meaning of the sentence.
IMO I'm not native but other than what it is sounds terrible

[RonPurewal]

I do not understand this SC. I picked A, but it is wrong. I do not like any of the answers, but the OA is C.
How can I discard all the other answer choices?
Thanks

Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the
telephone, a tool for private conversation; instead, it is precisely the
opposite, a tool for communicating with a large, public audience.
A. Marconi’s conception of the radio was as a substitute for the telephone, a tool
for private conversation; instead, it is
B. Marconi conceived of the radio as a substitute for the telephone, a tool for
private conversation, but which is
C. Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could
substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become
D. Marconi conceived of the radio to be a tool for private conversation, a substitute
for the telephone, which has become
E. Marconi conceived of the radio to be a substitute for the telephone, a tool for
private conversation, other than what it is,

(a) has incorrect diction. you can't say "his conception was as..."
i don't really know what this error is formally called, but it's a VERY common type of error, in which spoken-language forms are incorrectly substituted into written language.

here are some more examples of the same sort of problem. all of the following are wrong:
the reason for X was because...
the way to do X is if you...
the problem is when...

most other forms that look like this are also incorrect. if you were just editing prose (as a second-language english speaker), this would be an impossible task, but, if you have answer choices with which to compane the item in question, you have a better chance of figuring out what's wrong.

(the corrected versions of the above:
the reason for X is that...
the way to X is to VERB...
the problem is that...)

also, if there's a verb form for something that uses fewer words, it's generally preferable to the clumsy noun form.

for instance, X conceived of Y as Z is much, much better than X's conception of Y was Z.
similarly, X thought of Y as Z is much, much better than X's idea of Y was Z.
etc.

the other problem with (a) is that it uses the present tense.
the sentence discusses what has become of the telephone since its original conception by the 1900's-era innovator Marconi. since the sentence is contrasting the evolution of the telephone with its original conception, it's more appropriate to use "has become".

--

in (d) and (e), "conceived ... to be" is unidiomatic. you need "as".

--

(d) is all kinds of wrong. the modifier ("a substitute for the telephone") doesn't clearly point to anything, and the sentence is also saying that the telephone is now used to reach large audiences (!)

in (e), "other than what it is" isn't properly formal, and it's also not clear what that's supposed to mean.

--

in (b),
* "which" isn't parallel to anything
* "a tool for private conversation" applies to the telephone (it's supposed to apply to the radio) -- (e) has this same problem.

[hema.jce]

C) Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could
substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become

- Here what does "it" refer to ? Meaning wise it refers to Radio. But is'nt Telephone the closest antecedent?

Pls. clarify.

[navdeep_bajwa]

Please shed some light on "it" it should refer to telephone but OG says "it" refers to radio

[RonPurewal]

Please shed some light on "it" it should refer to telephone but OG says "it" refers to radio

remember that pronoun ambiguity is not an absolute rule. you should treat it as less important than other rules.
in general, you should only ELIMINATE on pronoun ambiguity when the pronoun is PARALLEL to the wrong noun.
i.e., "it" is the SUBJECT of its clause. therefore, if "telephone" were the SUBJECT of its respective clause, then we'd have a serious enough problem to force elimination.

[Anonymous1123]

Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could
substitute for the telephone.

What is subject of this clause? Is it Radio or is it Marconi? If the Subject is Marconi, doesn't "It" in the following clause refer to subject of the first clause?

[navdeep_bajwa]

in general, you should only ELIMINATE on pronoun ambiguity when the pronoun is PARALLEL to the wrong noun.

Ron Can you please elaborate what do you mean by Parallel to wrong noun

Please provide examples to show when a pronoun is ambiguous and when it is not

[RonPurewal]

in general, you should only ELIMINATE on pronoun ambiguity when the pronoun is PARALLEL to the wrong noun.

Ron Can you please elaborate what do you mean by Parallel to wrong noun

Please provide examples to show when a pronoun is ambiguous and when it is not

do you have your OG verbal supplement?

look up: (i can't post them here)
* #71 in the 1st edition purple supplement / #68 in the second edition blue one:
- in this case, "them" is ambiguous (customers vs. phone companies).
this is UNACCEPTABLE ambiguity:
- the intended referent is "phone companies"
- but, "them" is grammatically parallel to "customers" (both are objects of verbs)

* #19 in the 1st edition purple supplement / #21 in the second edition blue one:
- in this case, "they" is ambiguous (large investors vs. property values)
this is ACCEPTABLE ambiguity:
- the intended referent is "property values"
- "they" is parallel to "property values" (each is the subject of its respective clause)

[mithra]

Ron,

A question about the usage of "that" in the correct answer:

b) "Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become

Doesn't "that" refer to "private conversation", since radio is far away?
I get confused on when "that" should refer to noun immediately preceeding it.

can you pls explain the reason why "that" refers to "radio"? do I just neglect the noun in
"as a tool for private conversation" after radio?

[RonPurewal]

Ron,

A question about the usage of "that" in the correct answer:

b) "Marconi conceived of the radio as a tool for private conversation that could substitute for the telephone; instead, it has become

Doesn't "that" refer to "private conversation", since radio is far away?
I get confused on when "that" should refer to noun immediately preceeding it.

you have to judge this from the surrounding context; it's impossible to make this judgment from mechanics alone. "that" modifiers are much more flexible than "comma + which" modifiers.

for instance:
the spoon is a tool for eating food that was invented in prehistoric times --> "that..." applies to "tool" (a bit awkward, but legitimate)
the spoon is a tool for eating food that is too thin to stay on the surface of a fork --> "that" applies to "food"
mechanical considerations just won't help you here. context is king.

for another official example, check out #50 in the DIAGNOSTIC portion of og11 or og12 (not the normal sentence correction section).

[parveenjain]

A question here:
The option C has semicolon(;) as the separator between telephone and instead.As I learned from MGMAt SC that after semicolon(;) there should be independent clause.
But Here the second sentence starts with 'instead' , is it right to call it as independent clause.

[tim]

is there a subject? (yes)
is there a verb? (yes)
are they introduced by a relative pronoun? (no)
then you have an independent clause..

another word that is often used after a semicolon to introduce the second independent clause is "however"..