The Environmental Protection Agency frequently puts

[eybrj2]

whoa, you guys are missing the main point here: the word whose idiomatic usage is being tested is risk, not chance.

this is a bit hard to see in this particular sentence, so here's an analogy (which i'm making up on the spot - not part of an official question):
as small a collection as three pirated albums has occasionally drawn the attention of the recording industry.
in this case, 'collection', not 'albums', is the subject of 'has drawn' (which can be inferred from the fact that 'has' is singular).
this is the case because this sentence is equivalent to the following rearranged version:
a collection as small as three pirated albums has occasionally drawn the attention of the recording industry.

--

the same reasoning applies here; you're looking for idiomatic usage that agrees with 'risk', not 'chance'.

--

the last poster is correct in one sense, which is that there are correct idiomatic usages of 'chance to'.
HOWEVER,
the last poster is incorrect in this particular scenario, because 'chance to' is NOT used when 'chance' refers to a mathematical probability (as it does in this context). in the case of mathematical probabilities, you can only use 'chance of'.
for instance, you can't say this treatment has a 70% chance to cure the disease; you have to say chance of curing.

hth!

You mean that "as little risk as one is the same as "a risk as little as one"?

[tim]

i don't think that's what Ron is saying at all..

[vivs.gupta]

Hi Ron:
I understand why OA is B, but I want to ask if I change the option B to these styles

1) as little a risk as one chance in a million of causing
2) a risk as little as one chance in a million of causing
3) risk as little as one chance in a million of causing

Are these still OK? I think 2) should be right as you have already mentioned. Are "present risk" and "present a risk" both OK?

Can someone help on this question?

[abhey.seth]

Option D and E are wrong because "a risk for" is wrong idiomatic usage.

"a risk" as little as one chance in a million "for" it to cause

[divineacclivity]

hi Ron,

here is the example from Longman Dictionary:
It was a calculated risk to appoint a man without management experience to such a senior post.

ah yeah, that's a different structure entirely.

those sorts of things, beginning with 'it is/was/would be/etc.', are actually inverted constructions: in other words,
'it would be X for Y to do Z' is the same as 'for Y to do Z would be X'
'it would be X to do Z' is the same as 'to do Z would be X'

...so the longman example is really a convoluted way of saying
to appoint a man without management experience to such a senior post was a calculated risk.
it's uncommon, although not truly rare, to see infinitives used in this sort of way. (note that the sentence i just wrote - completely unintentionally - can be rearranged in exactly the same sort of way. see if you can do it)

--

as an analogy, you can perfectly well say:
it would be a mistake to marry her
...which is really an inverted-construction way of saying 'to marry her would be a mistake'. but a sentence can't refer to 'the mistake to marry her'; the proper idiom in that case would be 'the mistake of marrying her'.

You do make things v easy for others to understand, Ron/ManhattanGmat. Thank you.

[divineacclivity]

sorry ron :-( i am little slow and don't understand how your example is applicable to "risk". could you please try to explain again? i got the right answer only by knowing the idiomatic usage of "chance of"..

thank you very much in advance!

For what it's worth, I'd try to conclude what Ron's tried to explain above about "risk to" and "risk of"
First of all, Ron says risk of is the correct idiom
Second, "risk to", as someone mentioned in one of the posts above, is valid in that particular usage in a sentence. Here's an example:
1. To marry her was a big risk
We could put the above sentence in this way:
2. It was a big risk to marry her - here risk to is not the idiom.
Idiomatic usage of risk of would be:
3. He took the big risk of marrying her.

Other example,
It is not good to see the sun directly.
To see the sun directly is not good.

Ron, Experts,

Could you please tell me if, in sentence-1, "to marry her" and "risk" are nouns here?
Also, in sentence-3, is 'of marrying her' is an adjectival phrase modifying risk?

thanks in advance.

[jlucero]

sorry ron :-( i am little slow and don't understand how your example is applicable to "risk". could you please try to explain again? i got the right answer only by knowing the idiomatic usage of "chance of"..

thank you very much in advance!

For what it's worth, I'd try to conclude what Ron's tried to explain above about "risk to" and "risk of"
First of all, Ron says risk of is the correct idiom
Second, "risk to", as someone mentioned in one of the posts above, is valid in that particular usage in a sentence. Here's an example:
1. To marry her was a big risk
We could put the above sentence in this way:
2. It was a big risk to marry her - here risk to is not the idiom.
Idiomatic usage of risk of would be:
3. He took the big risk of marrying her.

Other example,
It is not good to see the sun directly.
To see the sun directly is not good.

Ron, Experts,

Could you please tell me if, in sentence-1, "to marry her" and "risk" are nouns here?
Also, in sentence-3, is 'of marrying her' is an adjectival phrase modifying risk?

thanks in advance.

Correct on both accounts. "of marrying her" is going to be a prepositional phrase which should always modify a noun.

"To marry" is an infinitive form of a verb, but "To marry her" is a noun. Only nouns (& pronouns) can be subjects of sentences.

To marry was a big risk. WRONG
To marry her was a big risk. CORRECT

[Suapplle]

whoa, you guys are missing the main point here: the word whose idiomatic usage is being tested is risk, not chance.

this is a bit hard to see in this particular sentence, so here's an analogy (which i'm making up on the spot - not part of an official question):
as small a collection as three pirated albums has occasionally drawn the attention of the recording industry.
in this case, 'collection', not 'albums', is the subject of 'has drawn' (which can be inferred from the fact that 'has' is singular).
this is the case because this sentence is equivalent to the following rearranged version:
a collection as small as three pirated albums has occasionally drawn the attention of the recording industry.

--

the same reasoning applies here; you're looking for idiomatic usage that agrees with 'risk', not 'chance'.

--

the last poster is correct in one sense, which is that there are correct idiomatic usages of 'chance to'.
HOWEVER,
the last poster is incorrect in this particular scenario, because 'chance to' is NOT used when 'chance' refers to a mathematical probability (as it does in this context). in the case of mathematical probabilities, you can only use 'chance of'.
for instance, you can't say this treatment has a 70% chance to cure the disease; you have to say chance of curing.

hth!

hi,Ron,so,both " one chance in a million" and "one in a million chances" are correct?please certify,thanks a lot!

[tim]

If you are ever asking about whether something is "correct" on SC, you are going about things backwards. You should ask whether something is incorrect. If you cannot come up with a solid reason why something must be incorrect, DON'T eliminate it. I can't see anything wrong with either of your examples, so I would not choose between them on the GMAT.

[Haibara]

hi,Ron,so, both " one chance in a million" and "one in a million chances" are correct?please certify,thanks a lot!

Ron, I have the same question as the one in the quote, would you please clarify it?

Plus, if I eliminate "a" and replace "for" with "of" in choice D :

The Environmental Protection Agency frequently puts mandatory controls on toxic substances that present risk as little as one chance in a million of causing cancer.

Is it grammatically correct now?

Thanks very much.

[RonPurewal]

hi,Ron,so, both " one chance in a million" and "one in a million chances" are correct?please certify,thanks a lot!

As a long-time writer and editor, I can tell you for sure that "one in a million chances" is not ok. I have no conscious idea why, though, even in retrospect.

Remember:
If you see a split like this one"”a difference that occurs at just one place in the sentence, without any relationship to anything anywhere else in the sentence"”it's almost certainly a distraction.
Read here:
post96656.html#p96656

There are lots and lots of distractions on SC. That's one of the reasons why it's on the test: to see whether you can focus on a small number of major themes that are swimming in an ocean of distractions.

[RonPurewal]

Plus, if I eliminate "a" and replace "for" with "of" in choice D :

The Environmental Protection Agency frequently puts mandatory controls on toxic substances that present risk as little as one chance in a million of causing cancer.

Nope. Still not ok.

With MOST adjectives, it's ok to write "NOUN as ADJ as..."
E.g., Women as beautiful as my wife are rare.

On the other hand, if the adjective is "many", "few", "much", or "little", then you cannot write "NOUN as ADJ as..."
Instead, you must write
as many NOUNs as...
as few NOUNs as...
as much NOUN as...
as little NOUN as...

I think I already wrote this somewhere in this thread, but I'm too lazy to look right now, so, here it is again. (:
(Maybe it's in another thread.)

[Tadashi]

Hi Ron,
2 easy questions
________quote_________
On the other hand, if the adjective is "many", "few", "much", or "little", then you cannot write "NOUN as ADJ as..."
Instead, you must write
as many NOUNs as...
as few NOUNs as...
as much NOUN as...
as little NOUN as...
________quote_________

Q1, so, [revised] as little a risk as one chance in a million of causing is wrong. Right?

Q2,
as beautiful a gift as [right]
as beautiful gifts as [wrong] --> gifts as beautiful as [right]
am i right?
what about "as clean water as" ?
Thanks!
Tadashi.

[RonPurewal]

Q1, so, [revised] as little a risk as one chance in a million of causing is wrong. Right?

Yes, that would be wrong.

Q2,
as beautiful a gift as [right]
as beautiful gifts as [wrong] --> gifts as beautiful as [right]
am i right?

Yes.

what about "as clean water as" ?
Thanks!
Tadashi.

No. It would be "water as clean as...".
As it turns out, this one works in much the same way as your plural example above ("gifts as beautiful as...").

[Tadashi]

crystal clear now.
Thanks,
Tadashi.